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The 

Idea  of  Creation;  its  Origin 

and  its  Value 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  DIVINITY 

SCHOOL  IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


(DEPARTMENTS  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT 
AND  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY* 


By  WILLIAM  CALDWELL 


FORT  WORTH 
KEYSTONE  PRINTING  COMPANY 

1909 


ZTbe  xaniverBit^  ot  Cbicaao 

Founded  by  John  D.  Rockefeller 


The 


Idea  of  Creation;  its  Origin 
and  its  Value 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  DIVINITY 

SCHOOL  IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


(DEPARTMENTS  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT 
AND  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY) 

OF   T^£ 

UMIVSkS.TY 

OF 

By  WILLIAM  CALDWELL 

u 


FORT  WORTH 

KEYSTONE  PRINTING  COMPANY 

1909 


PREFACE. 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  University  to  say  that  this  thesis  was  sub- 
mitted five  years  ago.  It  is  now  printed  with  no  addition,  with 
few  subtractions  and  without  improvement  except  that,  through 
the  kindness  of  my  friend.  Dr.  John  M.  P.  Smith,  I  have  been  able 
to  bring  the  bibliography  up  to  date. 

I  am  indebted  to  Professor  George  Burman  Foster  for  suggest- 
ing the  subject,  for  helpful  hints  as  to  the  treatment  and  for  much 
besides  not  easy  to  designate. 

I  can  not  refrain  from  a  fuller  expression  of  deep  indebted- 
ness to  my  lamented  friend  and  instructor,  President  William 
Rainey  Harper,  under  whose  guidance  and  inspiration  the  Old 
Testament  materials  were  worked  out.  Under  his  leadership  the 
Old  Testament  became  more  human  and  more  divine.  Out  of  the 
historical  and  critical  study  there  emerged  a  new  spiritual  unity 
and  a  new  ethico-religious  value,  as  the  supreme  purpose  of  crea- 
tion and  redemption  was  seen  fulfilling  itself  in  many  ways  through 
an  age-long  process;  and  the  divine  authority  remained,  not 
because  supported  by  isolated  texts  torn  from  their  contexts,  but 
because  through  all  the  process  the  one  increasing  purpose  was 
manifest,  the  purpose  of  holy  love. 

William  Caldwell. 

Fort  Worth,  Texas,  May,  1909. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION 

Introductory — The  Idea  reflected  in  Jewish,  Christian  and  Moham- 
medan thought — The  Idea  of  Creation  the  correlate  of  theism 
— Various  Naturalistic  Theories — Modifications  of  the  Crea- 
tion Idea,  Jewish  and  Christian — The  question  of  Freedom  in 
Creation — The  history  of  the  Idea  of  Creation 5-13 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION 

The  Super-Psychological,  Super-Historical  Treatment — The  Psycho- 
logical and  Historical  Theory 14-20 


CHAPTEiR  III. 

THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Introductory — Purpose  of  the  sacred  writers — The  Idea  of  Creation 
in  early  Prophetism  (National),  Gen.  2:4b-3 — The  Idea  of 
Creation  in  the  Wisdom  Literature,  Prov.  3:19,  20;  8:22-33, 
and  the  Book  of  Job — The  Idea  of  Creation  in  later  Prophet- 
Ism  (Universal),  Isaiah  40-66 — The  Idea  of  Creation  in  the 
Priestly  Element,  Gen.  1:1-2 :4a — The  Idea  of  Creation  in  the 
Psalms  8,  19,  24,  33,  74,  89,  90,  95,  103,  104,  etc 21-44 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  VALUE  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION  FOR  CHRISTIAN  FAITH 

The  Value  of  the  Idea  of  Creation  for  Christian  Faith — It  Arose  in 
Opposition  to  Gnosticism — It  is  Indispensable  for  Christian 
Faith  45-48 


202450 


I. 

THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 
Introductory. 

The  Idea  of  Creation,  in  its  highest  sense,  is  peculiar  to  the 
circle  of  thought  which  moves  through  the  three  points  of  Judaism, 
Christianity,  and  Islam ;  is  a  part  of  the  theistic  view  of  the  world, 
and  comes  to  its  supreme  expression  in  the  doctrine  of  creation  out 
of  nothing  by  a  supramundane  God.  It  will  be  our  thesis  to  show 
that  this  deliverance  of  faith,  rightly  interpreted,  has  abiding  sig- 
nifi'cance  for  religion ;  that,  insofar  as  it  expresses  the  unconditioned 
sovereignty  of  God,  it  is  indispensable  to  Christianity. 

The  Idea  Reflected  in  Jeivish,  Christian  and  Mohammedan  Thought. 

In  the  Jewish  faith,  ' '  The  belief  in  God  as  the  Author  of  Crea- 
ti^on,  ranks  first  among  the  thirteen  fundamentals  enumerated  by 
Maimonides."  The  doctrine  is  taught  in  all  modern  Jewish  Cate- 
chisms. "To  such  a  degree  has  this  (doctrine)  found  acceptance 
as  the  doctrine  of  the  Synagogue  that  God  has  come  to  be  desig- 
nated as  'He  who  spoke  and  the  world  sprang  into  existence.'  " 
(Jewish  Encyclopedia,  Article  "Creation.") 

The  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  is  stated  most  unequivocally: 
I"  God  exists  of  Himself  *  *  *  the  fundamental  dogma  con- 
cerning all  things  else  is  that  they  are  produced  out  of  nothing  by 
God. "  "  The  Datin  Church  has  always  attached  to  creare  the  mean- 
ing of  production  out  of  nothing."  "When  Creation  is  described 
as  a  production  from,  or  out  of,  nothing  (de  nihilo  or  ex  nihilo), 
the  "nothing"  is  not,  of  course,  the  matter  out  of  which  things 
are  made.  It  means  "out  of  no  matter,"  or  "not  out  of  anything," 
or  starting  with  absolute  non^being  and  replacing  it  with  being." 

"To  the  unprejudiced  mind  the  dogma  of  creation  is  as  plain 
at  the  dogma  of  a  self -existing  God.  The  two  notions  are  correla- 
tive. Things  outside  of  God  must,  from  the  fact  that  they  do  not 
exist  necessarily,  depend  on  other  Being.  The  Notion  of  Creation 
is  free  from  contradiction,  as  no  other  is.  It  is  without  analogj', 
yet  reason  plainly  tells  us  that  creative  power  is  a  necessary  attri- 
bute of  God."  (V.  Manual  of  Catholic  Theology,  by  Wilhelm  and 
Scannel,  Vol.  I.,  p.  385ff.) 


6  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

The  Protestant  doctrine  on  this  point  does  not  differ  from  the 
Roman  Catholic.  The  "Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  teaches 
that  "It  pleased  God  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  glory  of  His  eternal  power,  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness, in  the  beginning,  to  create,  or  make  of  nothing,  the  world,  and 
all  things  therein,  whether  visible  or  invisible."  (Chap,  IV.,  Sec.  I.) 
Dr.  Charles  Hodge  says:  "If  there  be  no  creation,  there  is  no 
God." 

In  accordance  with  the  rigid  and  uncompromising  theism  of 
Mohammedanism,  the  Idea  of  Creation  is  greatly  emphasized  in 
the  Koran.  There  is  no  detailed  account  of  Creation,  details  are  of 
little  consequence,  and  few  concessions  are  made  to  popular  con- 
ceits of  the  Araibs.  Some  acquaintance  is  sho^vn  with  the  Biblical 
traditions.  In  this  unpoetic,  and  almost  brutally  practical,  faith, 
we  may  see  the  value  of  the  bare  idea  of  creation  in  its  clearest 
light. 

"Call  thou,  in  the  name  of  thy  Lord  who  created"  (Sura  96.) 
The  attritoute  of  majesty  and  power  imiplied  in  the  bare,  unqualified 
words  "who  created"  is  emphasized  in  the  doctrine. 

In  Sura  11,  the  thoug'ht  of  Creation  is  closely  coupled  with 
that  of  Providence.  "There  is  no  creature  which  creepeth  on  the 
earth,  but  G^d  provideth  its  food.  *  *  *  It  is  He  who  hath 
created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  in  six  days,  (but  His  throne  was 
above  the  waters  before  the  creation  thereof)." 

The  incomparable  glory  and  power  of  God  are  seen  in  His 
creative  activity. 

"He  hath  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  to  manifest 
His  justice."  "Shall  God,  therefore,  who  created  be  as  he  who 
createth  not ? "  (Sura  16).  " But  the  idols  which  ye  invoke,  besides 
God,  create  nothing,  but  are  themselves  created. "  (Sura  16.)  "It 
is  He  who  hath  given  you  life,  and  will  hereafter  cause  you  to  die ; 
afterwards  he  will  again  raise  you  to  life. ' '     (Sura  22. ) 

Verily  the  idols  which  ye  invoke,  besides  God,  can  never  create 
a  single  fly,  although  they  were  assembled  for  that  purpose ;  and  if 
the  fly  snatch  anything  from  them,  they  can  not  recover  it.  Weak 
is  the  petitioner  and  the  petitioned, — ^^God  is  powerful  and  mighty." 
(Sura  22.) 

He  hath  created  the  heavens  without  visible  pillars  to  sustain 
them,  and  thrown  on  the  earth  mountains  firmly  rooted,  lest  it 
should  move  with  you    *    *    *    This  is  the  creation  of  God :  sihow 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  7 

me  now  what  they  have  created,  who  are  worshipped  beside  Him  ? ' ' 
(Sura  31.) 

"Do  they  look  up  to  the  heaven  above  them  and  consider  that 
we  have  raised  it  and  adorned  it,  and  that  there  are  no  flaws  there- 
in? We  have  also  spread  forth  the  earth  *  *  *  Is  our  power 
exhausted  by  the  first  creation?"  No,  there  is  "a  new  creation 
*  *  *  the  raising  of  the  dead.  We  created  man,  and  we  know 
what  his  soul  whispereth  within  him ;  and  we  are  nearer  unto  him 
than  his  jugular  vein."     (Sura  50.) 

' '  All  things  have  we  created  *  *  *  our  command  is  no  more 
than  a  single  word,  like  the  twinkling  of  an  eye."    (Sura  54.) 

The  one  word  was  ^^kun"  ("let  there  be").  That  is,  all  things 
were  created  by  a  word  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  There  can  be 
no  greater  expression  for  stating  the  power  of  God.  It  is  to-be 
repeated  that  this  doctrine  is  for  Mohammedanism  almost  wholly 
devoid  of  the  poetry  that  we  find  in  the  creation  hymns,  in  and  out 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  is  of  greatest  practical  value  in  guarantying 
God's  power  to  reward  His  friends  and  punish  His  enemies.  That 
is,  it  is  the  presupposition  of  Providence  and  moral  government. 

Other  references  to  the  Koran  on  this  subject:  Suras  21,  31, 
41,  95,  etc. 

The  Idea  of  Creation  the  Correlate  of  Theism. 

The  doctrine  is  not  the  antithesis  of  any  temporal  evolution; 
it  is  not  to  be  bound  up  with  any  details,  such  as  six  days,  whether 
these  be  interpreted  literally  or  figuratively.  Evolution  may  be  a 
useful  hypothesis  as  to  certain  processes  and  results,  but  it  still 
leaves  us  with  the  ultimate  question  of  matter  and  mind  as  we  know 
them;  did  they  always  exist  in  their  present  apparent  dualism;  if 
not,  which  has  the  precedence,  matter  or  mind?  Or,  is  it  possible 
to  have  something  which  is  neither  matter  nor  mind,  but  having  in 
itself  the  potentiality  of  both  ? 

The  doctrine  will  exclude  the  pantheistic  view  of  the  world, 
which  makes  the  universe  the  "existence  form,"  the  "living  gar- 
ment, ' '  of  God. 

All  theories  which  exclude  mind  from  causation  in  the 
universe  will  likewise  be  eliminated.  Still  further,  the  doctrine  can 
not  be  harmonized  with  views  which  admit  mind  only  in  connec- 
tion with  matter. 


-8  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

This  doctrine  must  also  exclude  all  dualism  like  the  Persian, 
positing  an  eternal  struggle  between  a  good  and  an  evil  being;  or 
eternal  matter  with  independent  existence.  Again,  it  excludes  all 
thought  of  a  Grod  who  finishes  a  universe,  which  thereafter  exists 
apart  from  Him. 

All  thought  of  necessity  is  likewise  shut  out.  God  must  be  and 
remain  unconditioned.  Nothing  can  limit  His  holy  will.  The  ex- 
pression of  the  eternal  Personality  must  be  free,  for  there  can  be 
nothing  without  to  limit  the  absolute  Spirit.  (Creation,  however, 
because  of  the  richness  of  the  divine  nature,  can  not  be  merely  the 
fiat  of  almighty  power ;  it  must  be  also  the  expression  of  holy  lov*^ 
x"  The  creative  act  must  ever  transcend  our  thought.  We  can 
rest  upon  it  as  a  fact,  but  we  can  form  no  conception  of  its 
method.  But  the  origin  of  the  heterogeneous  within  the  homogen- 
eous, the  origin  of  motion  in  some  primal  mass,  is  just  as  incon- 
ceivable. The  idea  of  creation  does  not  depend  upon  our  ability 
to  picture  it.  The  content  of  the  concept  may  be  left  incomplete  if 
we  find  the  concept  itself  indispensable  to  our  thought.  That  such 
is  the  case  we  hope  to  show. 

Various  Naturalistic  Theories  of  the  Cosmos. 

It  may  be  useful  now  to  enter  a  little  into  details  with  respect 
to  various  other  theories.  We  may  conveniently  start  with  a  prop- 
osition which  meets  with  universal  assent,  ex  nihilo  nihil  fit.  ^o 
one,  I  suppose,  has  ever  been  bold  enough  to  suggest  that  the  Uni- 
verse came  into  existence  in  a  vacuum,  or  created  itself  out  of  noth- 
ing. We  all  have  to  start  with  a  certain  datum.  We  must  have 
an  eternal  God,  or  eternal  matter,  or  eternal  something.  Those  who 
deny  the  existence  of  an  eternal  God  must  affirm  an  eternal  uni- 
verse, suffering  manifold  changes,  indeed,  but  always  substantially 
the  same.  But  the  Universe,  as  we  know  it  through  geology  and 
astronomy,  has  suffered  extraordinarj'^  changes,  carrying  us  back  in 
thought  to  a  primordial  state,  which  we  designate  as  chaos,  over 
against  cosmos.  Now,  the  question  arises,  how  is  it  possible  to  get 
from  chaos  to  cosmos? 

(a)  There  is  the  physical-law  theory.  According  to  this 
theory  you  have  matter  in  a  nebulous  form  extended  beyond  what 
we  now  know  as  the  most  remote  planet. 

This  matter  already  has  its  well  known,  as  well  as  its  to  us  still 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  9 

unknown,  properties.  Under  the  operation  of  perfectly  definite 
laws  of  physics  and  chemistry  there  resulted  what  we  know  as  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  including  suns,  planets  and  all  still  nebulous 
matter  in  the  skies,  and  also  all  the  plants  and  animals,  and  their 
relations  and  adjustments,  on  our  globe. 

We  can  now  make  predictions  on  the  basis  of  physical  and 
chemical  laws.  Prof.  Huxley  thought  that  with  adequate  knowl- 
edge of  these  physical  and  chemical  laws  it  would  have  been  a  little 
thing  to  write  the  future  history  of  the  heavens,  as  well  as  that  of 
the  animals  and  plants  on  the  earth.  The  history  of  man  in  his 
struggle  and  victory  over  other  animals,  his  besetment  with  illusions, 
his  incorrigible  tendency  to  project  ideals  and  seek  moral  ends, 
would  have  been  from  our  point  of  view,  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing chapters,  albeit,  it  would  have  been  a  very  short  chapter  and 
relatively  an  unimportant  one,  looked  at  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
whole  history.  This  theory,  as  worked  out  in  detail  with  reference 
to  the  origin  and  movement  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  is  forever 
associated  with  the  name  of  La  Place.  It  has  been  an  interesting 
hypothesis  of  method,  has  appealed  to  many  scholars,  has  always 
attracted  a  certain  type  of  the  popular  mind,  has  been  accepted  by 
many  Christians  as  the  n^anner  of  the  divine  activity.  But  after 
all  is  said,  it  does  not  offer  us  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion of  origin  or  being.  The  theory  not  only  starts  with  matter, 
but  with  laws.  Furthermore,  a  little  motion  has  to  be  supposed, 
the  "nebula  has  a  slow  rotation  upon  an  axis;"  then  it  has  to  be 
supposed  that  this  mass,  which  is  the  Universe,  is  radiating  heat. 

(b)  Another  theory  posits  intelligence  in  nature  itself.  The 
apparent  impossibility  of  getting  ahead  with  blind  forces  of  matter 
and  motion,  though  there  be  physical  and  chemical  laws  granted, 
staggers  even  those  who  find  no  place  for  an  extramundane  mind. 
It  seems  to  them  that  with  the  blind  forces  we  could,  at  best,  only 
have  a  shuffling  about,  but  never  the  kind  of  order,  adjustment  and 
progress  that  we  perceive  in  our  world.  So  analogy  has  been  sought 
from  the  biological  world  rather  than  from  the  chemico-physical 
world.  The  difficulty  of  passing  from  the  non-living  to  the  living 
has  never  been  overcome.  It  is  then  proposed  to  start  with  life. 
We  have  it  in  the  plant.  It  acts  in  a  way  suggestive  of  mental 
operation.  The  plant  chooses  and  rejects  elements  of  earth  and  air 
according  to  its  needs;  it  turns  its  head  to  the  light.  It  has  an 
elective  fellowship  with  earth,  and  air,  and  sky,  and  it  adapts  the 


10  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

various  elements  to  its  awn  use  for  life,  growth  and  reproduction. 

But,  it  is  said,  no  one  has  ever  been  able  to  lay  hold  of  the 
principle  of  life  and  adaptation  apart  from  the  plant. 

The  case  seems  even  stronger  in  the  animal  world.  The  animal 
begins  as  a  microscopic  germ,  but  that  germ  contains  within  its 
mimic  w^orld  all  the  potencies  of  the  future.  Out  of  this  come 
organs  for  light,  fashioned  in  darkiness,  organs  for  hearing,  fashioned 
in  stillness,  organs  for  breathing  fashioned  before  they  are  needed, 
and  an  infinitely  complex  system  of  correlations  for  feeling,  acting, 
"willing,  knowing,  and  all  without  any  apparent  external  mental 
influence.  From  all  this  it  is  concluded  we  have  a  natura  naturans, 
a  vis  in  rebus  insita,  but  we  have  not,  and  do  not  need,  an  extra- 
mundane  mind.     This  is  hylozoism. 

Another  form  of  this  theory  more  clearly  distinguishes  mat- 
ter and  mind,  but  finds  them  inseparable.  rThe  mind  is  the  soul 
of  the  world,Jjnma  mundi. 

The  analogy  here  is  not  simply  from  biology,  but  rests  upon 
an  interpretation  of  man,  as  made  up  of  soul  and  body. 

These  theories  not  only  set  aside  all  thought  of  creation,  but 
they  leave  us  without  any  personal  Being  with  whom  we  can  come 
into  personal  relations.  Even  if  they  proved  true  our  question  of 
creation  remains. 

Modification  of  the  Creation  Idea,  Jewish  and  Christian. 

But  there  have  not  been  wanting  objections  to  the  doctrine  of 
creation  tvithin  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Churches.  ' '  Jewish  litera- 
ture (Talmudic,  pseudo-epigraphic,  and  philosophical)  shows  that 
the  difficulties  involved  in  this  assumption  of  a  creation  ex  nihilo 
*  *  *  were  recognized  at  a  very  early  day,  and  that  there  were 
many  among  the  Jews  who  spoke  out  on  this  subject  with  perfect 
candor  and  freedom.  Around  the  first  Chapter  of  Genesis  was 
waged  many  a  controversy  with  both  fellow-Jews  and  non-Jews, 
^lexandrian  Jews,  under  sway  of  Platonic  and  neo-Platonic  ideas, 
conceived  creation  as  carried  into  effect  through  agencies,  though 
still  an  act  of  divine  will,  while  the  i;«lation  of  the  agencies  to  the 
Godhead  is  not  always  clearly  defined,'  so  that  it  is  possible  almost 
to  regard  them  as  divine  hypostases, — sub-deities,  as  it  were,  with 
independent  existence  and  a  will  of  their  owti."  (Article  on  "Crea- 
tion," Jewish  Encyclopedia.) 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  11 

Christian  thinkers  have  felt  themselves  free  to  hold  views  at 
variance  with  that  commonly  accepted  by  the  Church  in  general. 

Origen,  though  he  referred  all  existence  to  the  will  of  God, 
still  held  the  Universe  to  be  eternal. 

Scotus  Erigena,  with  pantheistic  bent,  said,  ^Uion  aliud  Deo 
esse  et  velle  et  facere,"  thus  making  the  universe  co-eternal  with 
God. 

Other  Schoolmen,  not  pantheistic,  held  the  world  was 
co-eternal  with  God,  though  distinct  from  Him  and  dependent  on 
Him. 

Some  modern  theologians,  under  the  influence  of  monistic 
philosophy,  though  believing  in  an  extramundane  personal  God, 
have  nevertheless  assumed  the  relation  between  God  and  the  world 
to  be^ternal. 

^he  idea  that  God  made  the  world  out  of  his  own  substance 
has  had  its  defenders  among  churchmen  of  all  the  ages.)  "Sir 
William  Hamilton  said  that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  tlie  com- 
plement of  existence  being  either  increased  or  diminished.  When 
anything  new  appears  we  are  forced  to  regard  it  as  something  which 
had  previously  existed  in  another  form.  'We  are  unable,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  conceive  nothing  becoming  something ;  or,  on  the  other, 
something  becoming  nothing.  When  God  is  said  to  create  out  of 
nothing,  we  construe  this  to  thought  by  supposing  that  He  evolves 
existence  out  of  Himself;  we  view  the  Creator  as  the  cause  of  the 
Universe.  Ex  nihilo  nihil,  in  nihilum  nil  posse  reverti  expresses,  in 
its  purest  form,  the  whole  intellectual  phenomenon  of  causality.'  " 
Again  he  says:  "In  like  manner  we  conceive  annihilation,  only  by 
conceiving  the  Creator  to  withdraw  His  creation  from  actuality  into 
power.  *  *  *  The  mind  is  thus  compelled  to  recognize  an 
absolute  identity  of  existence  in  the  effect  and  in  the  complement 
of  its  causes — between  the  causatum  and  the  causa." 

The  Church  has  always  withstood  this  objection  to  the  doctrine 
of  Creation. 


The  Question  of  Freedom  in  Creation. 

Cousin  said,  God's  "essence  consists  precisely  in  His  creative 
power,"  and  "He  can  not  but  produce.  *  *  *  (Jod  is  no  more 
without  a  world  than  a  world  is  without  God. ' '  Yet,  he  denied  that 
He  made  creation  unfree. 


12  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

Some,  rejecting  natural  or  metaphysical  necessity,  hold  that 
God  is  under  moral  necessity  to  create,  because  He  is  love,  and 
love  must  have  its  o-bjects. 

Leibniz  would  say,  God  is  benevolence  and  is  under  moral 
necessity  to  create  beings  to  make  them  happy. 

The  common  view  held  by  the  Church  is  that  God  is  self-suf- 
ficient, and  wias  under  no  obligation  whatever  to  create,  being 
wholly  independent  of  His  creatures. 

The  element  of  truth  in  this  view,  and  it  is  all  important,  is 
that  God  must  be  and  remain  free  and  absolute  Sovereign.  A  danger 
lies  in  the  statement,  viz.:  That  God  may  be  an  arbitrary  despot 
and  the  world  His  slave  or  toy.  But  this  danger  is  shut  out  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  the  very  nature  of  the  God  manifested  in  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  Holy  Love,  to  act  freely  in  accordance  with  all  the 
fulness  and  glory  of  His  ethical  Personality.  The  holiness  of  God, 
His  apartness,  must  not  be  separated  from  His  glory.  His  mani- 
festation. The  Seraphim  chant  ''Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of 
hosts,"  but  the  immediate  antiphonal  response  is,  "The  fulness  of 
the  whole  earth  is  His  glory."  God  must  not  be  self-sufficient  in 
such  a  way  as  to  render  Him  unethical.  (On  this  section,  see 
Hodge's  Theology,  Vol.  I,  p.  550ff.) 

The  History  of  the  Idea  of  Creation. 

The  idea  of  Creation  out  of  nothing  is  not  explicitly  stated  in 
the  Old  Testament.  It  appears  in  II.  Maccabees,  7 :28.  It  seems 
implied  in  the  New  Testament,  Rom.,  4:17;  Heb.,  11:3.  \[]h.ere  is 
clearly  evident  a  progress  in  the  Old  Testament,  always  toward  the 
idea  of  creation  out  of  nothing.  If  it  can  pot  positively  be  affirmed 
that  this  doctrine  is  reflected  in  Gen.  1,  we  may  at  least  say  that 
only  one  step  remains.  And  so  compatible  is  the  chapter  with  that 
doctrine  that  it  has  for  ages  lent  itself  to  it.  Perhaps  more  than 
any  other  scripture  this  chapter  strengthened  the  Church  in  its 
deliverance  of  faith  which  won  over  all  divergent  theori% 

Pantokrator  appears  in  the  old  Roman  Symbol.  It  is  brought 
to  greater  definitencss  in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  "Creator  of  Heaven 
and  Earth."  This  sharpening  of  the  doctrine  was  brought  out  in 
opposition  to  the  Gnostics.  But  it  was  already  implicit  at  least  in 
the  earliest  rule  of  faith. 

Creation  out  of  nothing  appears  in  ecclesiastical  writing  first 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  13 

in  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas.  (Bk.  ii,  1st  Com.)  He  does  not  refer 
to  the  doctrine  as  something  new  or  unknown.  Justin,  Athenagoras, 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  are  not  careful  to  distinguish  creation  from 
fashioning  the  world  out  of  amorphous  matter.  But,  since  the  days 
of  Iranaeus  and  Tertullian,  the  doctrine  of  creation  out  of  nothing 
has  been  dominant  in  the  Church. 


II. 

*  * 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

The  theories  on  this  subject  may  be  classed  as  psychological 
and  historical  on  the  one  hand,  and  super-psychological  and  super- 
historical  on  the  other.  The  latter  theory  clings  to  some  form  of 
primeval  revelation,  or  Uroffenharung.  The  following  quotation 
will  illustrate  this  theory:  "Besides  being  poetic,  the  Sacred  Nar- 
rative (speaking  of  the  account  of  Creation)  is  pre-eminently 
symbolical — it  must  be  symbolical  because  the  divine  reality  could 
never  be  intuitively  known.  The  facts  transcend  all  the  possibility 
of  human  experience.  Whatever  knowledge  the  writer  had  in  regard 
to  the  creative  process  must  have  been  revealed  by  divine  omni- 
potence) But  such  a  revelation  could  not  have  been  communicated 
in  mere  vocables.  Words  are  themselves  but  signs — mere  arbitrary 
signs  of  images  and  ideas — and  can  convey  no  meaning  unless  the 
image  or  the  idea  be  already  before  the  mind.  The  only  natural 
hypothesis  (of  this  supernatural  occurrence)  is  that  the  knowledge 
wa.s  ^conveyed  in  a  symlbolic  representation — a  vision  of  the  past 
in  a  succession  of  scenic  representations  with  accompanying  verbal 
announcements,  like  the  visions  of  the  future  in  the  prophecies  of 
Ezekiel  and  the  Apocalypse  of  John.  The  original  formless  nebula, 
the  primeval  darkness,  the  brooding  spirit  producing  motion,  the 
consequent  luminosity,  the  separation  of  the  aeriform  fluid  into 
atmosphere  and  water,  the  emergence  of  the  solid  land,  the  appear- 
ance of  the  heavenly  luminaries,  the  swarming  of  the  waters  with 
living  things,  and  the  appearance  of  birds  of  wing  in  the  expanse 
of  heaven,  the  bringing  forth  of  land  animals,  and  finally,  the 
creation  of  man — all  pass  before  His  mind  in  a  succession  of  pic- 
torial representations  of  the  actual  progress  of  creation.  The 
eights  seen,  the  voices  heard,  the  emotions  aroused,  are  just  those 
adapted  to  bring  out  the  very  words  the  seer  actually  uses,  and  in 
both  cases  the  very  best  words  that  could  have  been  used  for  such 
a  purpose.  The  description  being  given  from  the  barely  optical, 
rather  than  the  reflective  or  scientific  standpoint  more  or  less  ad- 
vanced, is  on  this  very  account  the  more  vivid,  as  well  as  the  more 
universal.  It  is  the  language  read  and  understood  by  all." 
(Cocker,  Theistic  Conception  of  the  World,  p.  144.)  The  writer 
adds :  *  *  But  he  who  can  look  upon  it  with  a  clear  eye,  and  grasp  its 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  15 

real  unity,  must  recognize  it  as  a  sacred  hymn,  composed,  probably, 
by  Adam,  and  chanted  in  the  tents  of  the  Patriarchs  at  their  morn- 
ing and  evening  devotions  for  more  than  2,000  years,  to  commem- 
orate the  fact  and  keep  alive  the  faith  that  the  world  is  the  work 
of  the  triune  God."  (ibid.,  p.  143.) 

A  difficulty  has  been  placed  in  the  path  of  this  theory  by  philo- 
logical science  which  disposes  of  the  assumption  that  Hebrew  was 
the  original  language.  With  various  languages,  oral  transmission 
could  only  be  accurate  by  miracle.  In  any  case  the  assumption  of  an 
unbroken  tradition  back  to  the  first  man,  his  composing  a  hymn  for 
the  morning  and  evening  devotions  of  the  Patriarchs,  is  attended 
with  insurmountable  difficulties.  The  whole  theory  makes 
an  unwarranted  appeal  to  the  supernatural,  and  it  must  suffer 
dissolution  not  through  the  a  priori  difficulties  above  mentioned,  it 
might  outride  them,  but  through  the  facts  brought  to  light  by  the 
comparative  treatment.  We  can  not  withdraw  the  Biblical  account^ 
from  the  treatment  given  similar  narratives  in  other  writings  of 
antiquity.     The  various  nations  had  their  stories  of  creation  also. 

"That  which  we  read  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  not  an 
account  dictated  by  God  Himself,  the  possession  of  which  was  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  the  chosen  people.  It  is  a  tradition  whose 
origin  is  lost  in  the  night  of  the  remotest  ages,  and  which  all  the 
great  natioi^  of  Western  Asia  possessed  in  common,  with  some 
variations."!  (Lenormant,  Beginnings  of  History,  p.  xv.) 

The  eVfdence  now  accessible  from  various  quarters  is  over- 
whelmingly convincing  that  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  not  only 
does  not  go  back  to  remotest  times,  but  that  it  is  a  relatively  late 
document  within  the  Scriptures  themselves.  That  it  belongs  to  the 
writings  assigned  to  P  is  admitted  by  all  modem  scholars 
who  believe  in  historical  criticism  at  all.  It  is  probably  post-Exilic. 
At  best  it  can  not  be  much  before  the  Exile.  The  evidences  that 
it  is  not  an  original  document,  but  a  re- working  of  somewhat  refrac- 
tory materials,  are  convincing.  Its  tone  and  treatment  differ 
widely  from  that  of  other  creation  materials,  even  within  the  Old 
Testament. 

Leaving    this  super-psychological  and  super-historical  ground, 

we    ask    what    light    history    and    psychology    can    furnish    us. 

Qn  general,  some  idea  of  creation  must  have  arisen  almost  with  the 

dawn  of  human  intelligenc^  As  the  little  child  asks  the  question, 

"Who  made  this,  and  this?"  until  it  presses  back  to  the  question, 


16  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

"Who  made  God?"  so  it  must  have  been  with  the  race  in  its 
childhood.  Primitive  man  lived  in  closer  contact  with  nature  than 
we  do.  Her  moods  meant  more  to  him  than  they  do  to  us.  Sun- 
shine brought  joy  to  his  childish  heart,  and  the  storm,  with  its  hail 
and  rain,  drove  him  to  some  cave  or  poor  retreat  among  the  trees, 
where  he  was  forced  to  think.  It  is  this  break  in  his  experience, 
this  ceasing  of  his  environment  to  function  properly  for  his  welfare 
that  made  thought  necessary,  and  through  thought  finally  gave  him 
a  measure  of  control  of  his  environment.  The  very  continuance 
of  his  existence  depended  on  his  being  guided  by  the  law  of  causa- 
tion, and  this  law  would  lead  him,  after  the  analogy  of  his  own 
experience,  to  assign  personal  causes  to  events.  This  road  leads  to 
the  idea  of  creation.  This  does  not  imply  a  cosmogony  in  the 
earliest  stages.  This  very  comprehensive  thought  would  come 
slowly  and  be  subject  to  many  variations  in  form.  "Such  a  theory 
is  never  found  on  the  lowest  stages  of  human  culture.  Thus  it 
never  occurred  to  the  Eskimos,  says  Dr.  Brinton,  that  the  earth 
had  a  beginning. ' '    (Encyclopedia  Britannica,  Art.  ' ' Cosmogony. ' ' ) 

But  all  the  principal  nations  had  their  theories  a^bout  the  world, 
theogonies  as  well  as  cosmogonies.  Generally  the  gods  arose  out  of 
the  forces  of  nature,  and  came  to  power  through  struggle,  as 
Marduk  won  the  rights  of  creation  and  lordship  by  slaying  the 
dragon  of  chaos.  The  Creator  is  rather  a  necessary  organizer.  He 
is  often  evolved  from  the  abyss  itself. 

Elements  are  found  in  the  creation  literature  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  common  with  similar  literature  of  several  other  peoples. 
The  older  method  of  explaining  these  likenesses  as  due  to  a  primeval 
revelation,  Israel  being  the  'bearer  of  the  true  light,  and  other 
peoples  having  broken  lights,  has  proven  unsatisfactory.  It  must, 
of  course,  be  allowed  that  similarity  does  not  necessarily  imply 
dependence.  (For  example,  the  idea  of  a  world-egg  appears  m 
Phoenicia,  Egypt,  India,  China,  Polynesia  and  Finland,  and  it, 
no  doubt,  existed  in  many  other  quarterSk  This  is  not  necessarily 
a  witness  of  a  common  derivation.  The  world  has  made  a  more  or 
less  similar  impression  on  man  everywhere,  varying  according  to 
the  man 's  place  in  the  scale  of  culture.  Everywhere  the  egg,  with 
its  apparently  almost  homogeneous  mass,  yielding  the  hetero- 
geneous forms  of  life  and  motion,  must  have  caught  the  serious 
attention  of  mankind.  It  would  be  a  natural  step  from  this  mystery 
to  the  mystery  of  the  -world  albove  and  below,  especially  as  the  sky 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  17 

above  looks  so  much  like  the  inner  side  of  an  egg  shell  with  the 
iridescent  lining. 

But  that  Israel  is  debtor  to  other  nations  for  creation  materials 
can  be  no  longer  doubted ;  and  its  obligation  is  by  all  means  greatest 
to  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  Until  comparatively  recently  our 
knowledge  of  these  ancient  monarchies  was  scanty,  and  dependent 
upon  uncertain  authority.  The  writings  of  Berosus,  the  Baby- 
lonian historian  (c.  250  B.  C.)  came  to  us  at  third  hand  in 
Eusebius,  who  quoted  them  to  show  their  absurdity,  and  it  was 
supposed  that  he  distorted  them  to  make  them  seem  more  absurd. 
But,  through  the  labors  of  George  Smith  and  his  successors,  we  have 
the  testimony  of  the  original  cuneiform  inscriptions  from  the 
library  of  Assurbanipal  (668-626  B.  C.)  excavated  at  Kouyunjiki 
In  this  library  were  found  the  so-called  creation  ta.blets,  a  creation-! 
epic  written  on  seven  tablets.  The  points  in  common  between  these 
tablets  and  the  creation  materials  of  the  Old  Testament  are  so 
numerous  as  to  leave  the  matter  past  all  doubt  that  they  do  not  have 
an  independent  origin.  They  must  have  a  common  original  which 
they  copied  very  closely,  or  one  must  be  dependent  on  the  other. 
It  is  no  longer  necessarj%  in  the  light  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
history,  to  say  that  these  lands  did  not  get  their  creation  myths 
from  Israel.  Israel's  glory  is  not  lessened  by  not  having  furnished 
this  wild  and  barbaric  mythology.  On  the  other  hand,  the  strength 
of  Israel,  her  indomitable  hold  on  that  which  was  central  and 
eternally  abiding,  is  evident  in  that  she  was  a'ble  to  take  these 
variegated  myths  and  under  the  dominance  of  her  supreme  idea  of 
Jehovah  to  make  them  serve  an  eternal  purpose.  The  daring  myih 
of  the  world-egg  is  retired  as  useless,  but  it  has  left  us,  in  the 
word  "brooding,"  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  metaphors.  While 
the  seven  creation  tablets  in  their  present  form  do  not  go  back 
of  the  seventh  century  B.  C,  it  is  believed  from  several  lines  of 
evidence  (see  The  Seven  Creation  Tablets,  L.  W.  King)  that  the 
elements  in  the  creation  legends  of  Ba^bylonia  may  be  traced  back 
in  some  form  or  other  to  2500  or  3000  B.  C. 

Professor  Sayce  dates  the  Cuthean  legend  of  creation,  which 
is  very  different  from  the  account  given  by  the  Seven  Tablets,  at 
2350  B.  C.  This  legend  bears  no  resemblance  to  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis. 

If  we  grant  that  Babylonian  creation  mythology  exerted  a 
tremendous  shaping  influence  on  the  creation  literature  of  the  Old 


\ 


18  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

Testament,  we  shall  still  find  scholars  in  the  widest  disagreement 
as  to  when  this  influence  was  exerted.  With  reference  to  the  first 
chapter  of  G-enesis,  Gunkel  (Schoepfung  und  Chaos,  p.  4)  has 
given  the  various  possible  dates  with  their  respective  defenders. 
The  possible  dates  are,  time  of  Albraham  (Delitzsch),  time  of  Tel- 
el- Amarna  Tablets  (Barton),  Kingdom  of  Israel  (Schultz),  As- 
syrian dominion  in  Judah  (Budde,  etc.),  the  time  of  the  Exile 
(Stade,  etc.).  Dillmann  combats  the  idea  of  Babylonian  origin. 
Wellhausen  considers  Grenesis  1  a  "free  composition"  of  an  Exilic 
author.  The  question  is  left  unsettled  by  Schrader,  Winckler,  and 
Holzinger. 

But  the  creation  materials  within  the  Old  Testament  show 
several  different  strata.  There  is  a  wide  difference  between  the 
poetic  presentations  of  Job,  104th  Psalm,  and  other  Psalms,  and 
the  measured  prose  of  Genesis  1.  The  poetic  pieces  in  the  Old 
Testament  in  their  use  of  mythological  imagery  lie  close  to  the 
creation  hymns  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  They  seem  to  be 
the  connecting  link  with  the  Babylonian  source. 
\,l  Do  we  then  yield  the  point  that  Israel  got  its  creation  idea 
'^from  Babylonia?  By  no  means.  The  best  evidence  in  the  ease  is 
that  Babylonia  never  attained  to  Israel's  idea. of  creation  because  it 
never  attained  to  Israel's  theistic  concept.  The  creation  idea  in 
which  we  are  interested  is  not  to  be  found  by  borrowing  the  out- 
worn mythological  finery  of  a  broken  people.  It  is  an  idea  that 
arises  from  within.  It  may  be  historically  conditioned,  but  in 
its  essence  it  can  not  be  borrowed  at  all,  least  of  all  can  it  be  bor- 
rowed from  those  who  do  not  possess  it. 

It  will  now  be  interesting  to  sketch  the  idea  within  Israel 
itself.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  documents  containing  the  doc- 
trine of  creation  in  the  Old  Testa>ment  are  late,  it  has  been  sup- 
posed that  Israel  had  no  cosmogonic  stories.  Gunkel  has  attempted 
to  disprove  this,  and,  it  has  been  thought,  successfully.  His  con- 
tention may  be  granted  that  it  is  impossible  to  think  that  Israel 
alone  of  all  the  nations,  was  lacking  in  the  current  stories  and  ideas 
of  creation.  But  it  is  enough  for  our  purposes  that(references  to 
creation  are  conspicuously  absent  in  the  oldest  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  that  the  idea  of  creation  certainly  played  no  im- 
portant role  in  the  early  happy  days  of  Israel.  The  problem  is  a 
simple  one :  the  idea  of  creation  in  an  absolute  sense  is  incompatible 
with  the  idea  of  a  national  God^  It  is  not  too  hazardous  to  say 


\ 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  19 

that  no  one  of  the  national  prophets  of  Israel  ever  uses  the  doc- 
trine of  creation  as  a  motive  or  inspiration.  Gunkel's  apology  for 
their  silence,  that  the  prophets  had  something  on  hand  more  prac- 
tical than  instructions  concerning  the  past,  is  quite  inadequate. 
Nothing  seemed  more  practical  than  this  very  doctrine  to  the  great 
Prophet  of  the  Exile.  The  passage  in  Amos  4:13,  5:8,  9:5f,  (which 
come  in  like  parenthetical  doxologies  on  creation)  are  later  inser- 
tions. Zech.  12:1  is  late,  as,  almost  certainly,  Isa.  37:16.  Q^ere 
are  four  great  sources  of  the  doctrine  of  creation  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. They  are  Job,  Isa.  40ff,  Genesis  1,  and  the  later  Psalms.  It 
is  significant  that  these  portions  of  Scripture  are  all  almost  uni- 
formly assigned  to  a  period  after  the  captivity  of  Judah.  tl?hat  is 
to  say,  the  idea  of  creation  arose  when  God  was  revealed  as  the  God 
of  Providence  over  the  whole  earth  and  would  be  the  God  of  re- 
demption to  His  people)  Whatever  foregleams  there  were  of  this 
doctrine  before,  it  is  certain  that  the  doctrine  only  came  to  con- 
sciousness in  the  terrible  crisis  of  the  nation.  The  old  limited 
theory  broke  down  by  the  dead  weight  of  facts.  It  now  came  to  be 
seen  that  either  Jehovah  had  to  give  up  Israel  or  else  rule  the  whole 
world.  The  later  prophets  saw  Him  able  to  do  the  latter,  because 
he  was  Creator  of  all  the  world. 

To  put  it  theologically,  God  did  not  reveal  Himself  clearly  to 
Israel  in  the  beginning  as  the  Creator  of  the  Universe,  and  then 
reveal  himself  as  the  particular  God  of  Israel  in  a  unique  way. 
But,  first  of  all,  Israel  came  to  know  Jehovah  as  a  national  God 
and  a  strong  deliverer  from  the  Egj^ptians  and  strong  defender 
against  the  nations  of  Canaan.  That  is,  an  experience  of  God  in 
deliverance,  salvation,  preceded  more  difficult  ideas  about  Him.  But 
so  long  as  Jehovah  brings  success,  nothing  is  needed  but  loyalty; 
broader  ideas  would  be  useless.  Israel,  however,  has  not  only 
received  salvation,  she  has  received  a  divine  vocation — to  rule  and 
to  bless  t^he  world. 

But  Israel  awoke  only  slowly  to  the  consciousness  of  her 
calling.  It  was  only  when  the  Prophets  had  spent  themselves  in 
fruitless  toil,  striving  to  call  the  people  away  from  their  infatua- 
tion of  being  the  chosen  of  God,  the  favorites  of  heaven,  to  the 
acceptance  of  their  true  vocation,  and  when  consequently  they  went 
into  captivity,  that  they  began  to  realize  their  mission,  as  chosen 
through  the  universal  love  of  God  for  the  blessing  of  all  nations. 
Jonah  is  a  picture  of  Israel  held  up  to  ridicule  for  not  rising  to 


20  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

its  world-wide  vocation.  The  Songs  of  the  Servant,  Isa.  42  :l-4,  49  :l-6, 
50:4-9,  52:13-53:12,  give  us  the  true  Israel  carrying  salvation  to 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  suffering  even  unto  death,  and 
victorious  in  spite  of  death.  Through  the  terrible  discipline  of  the 
Exile,  and  national  dissolution,  and  guided  by  the  martyred 
prophets  of  the  past,  and  the  heroic  prophets  of  the  present,  Israel 
came  to  see  Jehovah  as  unlimited  sovereign  of  nations  and  history. 
He  can  only  be  this  in  virtue  of  His  power  over  heaven  and  earth, 
which  furnish  the  conditions  of  man's  moral,  as  well  as  natural, 
life — in  short,  He  is  Creator,  (it  is  a  matter  of  practical  importance 
that  we  should  rememiber  the  order  of  revelation  to  Israel.  The 
particularism  of  Israel  would  be  more  blameworthy  if  the  first  leaf 
of  its  history  had  contained  a  doctrine  of  the  creation  of  the  world 
by  God,  as  the  first  leaf  of  its  Bible  subsequently  came  to  do.  Like 
other  ideas,  the  idea  of  creation  suffered  Verschiehung.  Though  it 
arose  in  the  process,  and  in  consequence,  of  the  history  it  came  in 
the  written  memorials  of  that  history  to  stand  at  its  source,  as  at 
least  one  of  the  causes  that  made  it  possible.  But  we  have  only  to 
look  into  the  history  itself  to  see  how  highly  improbable  it  is,  not 
to  say  impossible,  that  a  people  who  began  its  history  with  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  should  have  gone  for  centuries  through  the 
mire  of  idolatry,  with  only  occasional  and  very  partial  regaining  of 
their  original  terra  firma. 


ni. 

THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION  IX  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

Introduction:  Purpose  of  the  Sacred  Writers. 

The  Sacred  Writers  of  the  Scriptures  never  set  themselves  to 
teach  science.  Mr.  Huxley,  however,  says:  "But  how  does  the 
apologist  know  what  the  Biblical  writers  intended  to  teach,  and 
what  they  did  not  intend  to  teach?"  In  the  matter  in  hand  it 
seems  possible  to  make  a  convincing  answer.  In  general,  it  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  race  is  for  religion,  not 
science,  fit  was  the  Greeks  who  sought  after  wisdom, — science;  the 
Jews  soug&t  after  a  sign, — divine  manifestation^  Nothing  is  clearer 
than  that  the  Hebrews  were  not  vitaUy  interested  lq  second  causes, 
for  which  alone  science  cares.  To  "understand"  an  event  was  to 
the  Hebrew  to  refer  it  to  God.  How  God  accomplished  it  was  of 
secondary  importance.  With  the  scientist  exactly  the  reverse  is 
the  case.  For  the  scientist  to  "understand"  an  event  is  to  find  its 
place  in  a  chain  of  causation.  Science,  as  such,  makes  no  state- 
ments as  to  God;  it  has  authority  only  in  the  kingdom  of  second 
causes.  Now,  granting  ihis,  is  it  not  perfectly  clear  that  the 
Hebrew  writer  never  intended  to  teach  science?  His  statements 
will  necessarily  involve  materials  comm(m  to  science,  because  both 
must  make  statements  ia  terms  of  the  world.  The  sacred  writer 
must  deal  with  the  world  of  experience,  else  men  can  not  be  relig- 
ious till  they  have  found  a  method  of  abstraction  from  experience, 
such  as  science  gives.  This  was  impossible  in  early  days  of  the 
race,  and  is  still  impossible,  except  to  a  limited  intellectual  aris- 
tocracy of  the  race.  If  there  are  some  inconveniences  resulting  from 
the  divine  method,  they  would  be  manifold  greater  if  the  sacred 
writers  had  spoken  in  accurate  scientific  form  ulae.  Even  the  proud 
scientist  of  today  would  probably  be  unable  to  do  more  than  touch 
the  hem  of  the  garment  of  the  Lord  were  revelation  made  in  terms 
of  absolute  science. 

StiU  further,  it  must  be  thankfully  remembered  that  these 
inconveniences  fall  upon  those  most  able  to  bear  them  and  not  upon 
the  "poor  and  needy."  It  is  the  crowning  testimony  of  the  divinity 
of  our  message  that  it  comes  to  the  poor  and  ignorant.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  owe  the  life  of  God  lq  the  world,  to  speak  from 
man's  side,  chiefly  to  the  poor  man  of  humble  and  contrite  spirit, 


I/' 


22  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

not  to  the  scientist.  The  religious  soul  bows  itself  in  adoration  in 
the  felt  presence  of  God.  The  cold  scientist  may  call  this  super- 
stition, and  may  analyze  this  flower  of  the  Spirit  till  he  leaves  us 
ashes  and  gases,  but  the  religious  man  will  go  on  with  his  devo- 
tions, on  the  basis  of  an  experience  more  immediate  and  interior 
than  can  be  attained  by  the  scientist.  His  world  is  the  real  world, 
that  of  the  scientist,  an  abstract  world  constructed  for  a  purpose. 
The  purpose  is  good.  Indeed,  his  construction  is  indispensable  for 
the  development  of  the  race,  to  control  the  real  world. 

The  sacred  writer,  then,  must  not  be  condemned  on  scientific 
grounds  if  he  is  not  standing  on  scientific  ground  at  all.  Though 
he  may,  from  the  natural  bent  of  the  human  mind,  fall  into  scien- 
tific form,  his  purpose  is  not  to  present  science,  but  to  exalt  God 
as  Wisdom,  and  Power,  and  Love,  or  to  show  man's  relation  to 
God.  He  describes  acts  and  processes  with  the  emphasis  upon  the 
majesty  and  power,  the  wisdom  and  sovereignty  of  God,  or  on  the 
weakness,  dependence,  or  sinfulness  of  man.  It  will  not  affect  the 
religious  idea  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  if  the  writer  has  failed  to 
express  it  in  scientifically  exact  language.  The  idea  did  not  arise 
through  science,  but  through  the  great  facts  of  experience,  and 
science  cannot  annul  it.  The  idea  of  creation  is  a  product  of  the 
religious  judgment,  or  valuation  of  the  world  in  its  totality.  Science 
moves  in  a  smaller  circle,  and,  perhaps,^  must  pronounce  ultimate 
questions  insoluble.  This,  again,  convinces  us  that  the  Hebrew 
writer  was  not  working  in  the  realm  of  science  at  all. 

Idea  of  Creation  in  Early  Prophetism  {National). 

Gen.  2:4b-3. 

The  «ldest  creation  document  in  the  Old  Testament  is  that 
found  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis.  The  thought  of  creation, 
however,  does  not  come  to  its  highest  expression  in  this  chapter.  It 
is  an  account  of  the  creation  of  man,  and  it  reflects  the  theology 
of  the  narratives  of  the  patriarchal  period,  and  moves  within  the 
narrower  lines  of  national  prophetism.  Furthermore,  it  lives  in  an 
atmosphere  of  poetry;  its  statements  are  picturesque  rather  than 
formal.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  contestants  in  the  war- 
fare between  science  and  theology  have  not  selected  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis,  but  the  first,  as  their  battlefield.     This  docu- 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

ment  belongs  to  the  Jehovist  materials,  which  make  up  the 
most  romantic  and  interesting  part  of  the  Book  of  Genesis. 
To  this  writer  we  owe  the  picturesque  stories  that  have  made 
Grenesis  live  in  the  hearts  of  men  for  so  many  centuries,  stories  so 
full  of  what  is  most  deeply  human,  tender  and  religious.  In  no 
part  of  his  work  is  there  wanting  that  deep  moral  and  religious 
earnestness  which  disarms  literal  criticism.  He  has  laid  hold  of 
God,  not  as  a  metaphysical  power,  nor  even  as  far  away  Divinity, 
but  as  a  personal  and  living  G^,  who  can  be  called  by  a  personal 
name  and  described  as  acting  in  a  very  human  way.  But  we  are 
to  remember  that  anthropomorphism  is  necessary  to  religion,  and 
that  the  Jehovist  differs  from  the  other  sacred  writers,  not  in  kind, 
.but  only  in  degree  in  his  use  of  anthropomorphisms.  It  is  not 
because  he  uses  anthropomorphisms,  that  he  does  not  yield  us  the 
highest  idea  of  creation,  but  because  he  did  not  yet  need  the  great 
idea  which  later  became  the  indispensable  requisite  for  the  survival 
of  the  religion  of  Israel.  The  religion  of  the  Golden  Age,  or  religion 
in  its  "classic  times,"  did  not  need  such  mighty  ideas  as  were 
demanded  when  the  dissolution  of  religion  became  a  possibility  to 
be  faced.  The  ideas  had  to  undergo  revision,  enlargement,  strength- 
ening, that  the  religion  of  later  times  might  make  one  music  with 
that  of  former  times,  "but  vaster." 

It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  we  have  here  a  continua- 
tion of  the  account  of  creation  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  that  it  narrows  the  story  from  the  universal  to  the  par- 
ticular in  a  perfectly  natural  way.  It  is  said:  "It  is  professedly 
not  an  account  of  creation,  but  a  sequel  to  that  account."  That 
it  is  not  professedly  an  account  of  the  creation  of  the  world  is  to 
be  admitted.  It  is  an  account  of  the  creation  of  man,  and  even 
that  is  governed  by  an  ulterior  aim.  But  that  it  is  a  sequel  to 
Genesis  1  by  the  same  hand  is  not  to  be  admitted.  As  Dillmann 
says :  "It  is  not  even  to  be  supposed  that  the  second  narrator  pre- 
supposed the  first  and  wished  only  to  supplement  him.  A  supple- 
menter  would  have  introduced  his  work  into  a  scheme  of  days  and 
would  not  have  reported  anything  in  confiict  with  the  first  report 
without  showing  how  the  two  agree.  We  should  expect  implied 
allusions  in  the  second  to  the  first.  This  is  nowhere  found  except  in 
Jehovah  Elohim." 

If  this  chapter  were  a  natural  continuation  of  the  first  chapter, 
we  should  expect  a  beautiful,  new  world,  full  of  life,  animal  and 


24  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

vegetaible,  green  valleys  cut  'by  sparkling  streams  swarming  with 
fishes,  trees  with  birds  among  the  branches,  flowers  with  bees  suck- 
ing their  honey,  man  and  his  mate  in  dominion  over  all  creation. 
On  the  contrary  we  find  ourselves  on  a  dry,  barren,  desert  land, 
with  no  shrub  in  sight  and  no  living  thing,  for  there  is  no  water 
to  make  vegetation  possible,  and  no  man  to  irrigate  and  cultivate 
the  land.  This  account  has  striking  resemblances  to  the  second 
Babylonian  account  of  creation,  which  also  does  not  have  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  as  its  principal  theme, 

*'No  plant  had  been  brought  forth. 
No  tree  had  been  created, ' ' 

(But  the  explanation  is  different.) 

*'The  whole  of  the  lands  were  sea." 

(See  Gunkel's  Schoepfung  u.  Chaos,  p.  419.) 

It  is  psychologically  natural  that  the  final  arrange- 
ment of  the  materials  should  be  as  it  is  in  our  Bibles, 
going  from  the  most  general  to  the  particular, — the  creation  of  the 
whole  Universe  before  arranging  a  nest  for  man,  the  favorite  of 
heaven  and  lord  of  creation.  But  it  is  psychologically  natural  that 
in  origin  the  particular  should  precede  the  general,  that  man's 
creation  and  the  thoughts  touching  him  most  nearly  should  be 
wrought  out  and  systematically  committed  to  writing  before  a 
cosmogony  as  a  w^hole  should  be  elaiborated.  Some  races  have  never 
risen  to  the  thought  of  a  cosmogony;  but  to  explain  the  origin  of 
man  was  a  more  pressing  need.  And  in  this  the  heathen  nations, 
especially  the  BaJbylonian  and  Egyptian,  approach  more  nearly  to 
the  religious  plane  of  Israel  than  they  do  in  the  creation  of  the 
world.     ('See  Encyclopedia  Britanniea  Art.  ''Cosmogony.") 

The  chief  purpose  of  the  narrative  is  to  give  a  starting  point 
for  the  history  of  redemption.  It  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind  how 
profoundly  religious  is  the  author,  and  that  therefore  he  keeps 
before  his  eye  the  one  goal  of  redemption.  Man  is  the  center  of  all 
his  concentric  circles,  and  all  his  problems  must  find  their  solu- 
tion in  the  constitution  of  man's  nature,  the  environment  of  his 
early  days,  and  Jehovah  with  whom  he  had  to  do.  The  constitu- 
tion of  his  nature  is  most  clearly  set  forth.  A  fearful  dualism  of 
matter  and  spirit  conditions  him  from  the  outset.  He  is  above  the 
animals,  but  he  shares  much  of  their  nature.  His  one  human  com- 
panion is  one  in  nature  with  himself,  albeit  not  wholly  with  "like 
proportion  of  lineaments,  of  manners  and  of  spirit,"  for  she  is 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  25 

■weaker  and  more  accessible,  more  open  to  the  dangers  of  wonder, 
of  impulse  and  desire.  Herein  lay  the  fatal  weak  spot  in  the  first 
human  pair  struggling  under  humanity's  dualism  of  flesh  and 
spirit.  And  yet  woman  was  not  sent  upon  Adam  as  Pandora,  who 
was,  according  to  the  Greek  myth,  sent  upon  man  as  a  punish- 
ment. 

The  environment  is  not  that  of  a  hard  toiler.  Man  is  in  a 
garden  with  light  labor  and  no  cares.  Perhaps  herein  lay  a  danger. 
The  man  and  his  wife  live  without  shelter  except  that  of  the  leafy 
trees;  without  food  except  fruits  and  vegetables  eaten  raw,  with- 
out clothes  and  without  shame.  In  many  ways  man  is  a  child  of 
nature,  but  he  is  not  a  savage.  He  has  an  extensive  command  of 
language  and  is  unembarrassed  in  the  presence  of  Grod.  But  it  is 
quite  extreme  to  say  "Aristotle  was  but  the  rubbish  of  an  Adam, 
and  Athens  but  the  rudiments  of  Paradise." 

"  The  view  of  God  is  more  naive  than  that  of  later  times.  He 
works  directly,  not  through  the  spirit  and  word,  as  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Grenesis,  nor  through  wisdom,  as  in  the  eighth  chapter 
of  Proverbs.  He  forms  man  by  means  of  clay,  breathes  into  him 
the  breath  of  life ;  plants  a  garden,  puts  man  into  it ;  forms  animals 
supi>osedly  after  the  same  manner  as  man  (though  breathing  into 
them  is  not  implied)  ;  deliberates,  "It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be 
alone,"  causes  the  animals  to  pass  before  Adam,  with  the  result 
that  Adam  yearns  for  some  companionship  that  can  comfort  his 
loneliness;  provides  a  helpmeet,  brings  her  to  man  for  approval, 
which  Adam  bestows  without  stint  and  with  glee.  God  is  not 
infinitely  above  man  (cf.  Eccl.  5:2b).  He  does  not  seem  so  much 
an  infinite  Creator  as  an  Artificer,  He  uses  means,  clay  (2:7),  rib 
(2:21),  skins  (3:21). 

While  the  language  is  exceedingly  realistic  and  the 
anthropomorphism  seems  very  pronounced,  we  are  not  hastily  to 
conclude  that  the  writer  uses  the  language  with  cold  western  liter- 
alism. We  must  remember  that  he  may  use  the  language  of  the 
potter  without  supposing  that  God  actually  visibly  so  worked. 
There  may  lie  a  hint  in  the  "deep  sleep"  that  God  never  allows 
Himself  to  appear  to  men.     (Cf.  Gen.  19:17,  32:26.) 

The  Jewish  and  Christian  Churches  can  not  have  been  wrong 
in  seeing  the  promise  of  redemption  in  3 :15.  Thus  we  are  not  left 
with  a  world-weary  humanity,  sighing  for  a  lost  paradise  and 
groaning  under  the  "weary  weight  of  all  this  unintelligible  world," 
but  there  is  added  the  hope  of  victory.     The  end  of  all,  then,  is, 

\ 


26  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

this  story  of  creation  of  man  has  for  its  roots  the  hard  facts  of  sin 
and  consequent  suffering ;  for  its  fruits  the  hope  of  redemption,  for 
which  the  whole  creation  waits. 

The  Idea  of  Creation  in  the  Wisdom  Literature. 
1.    Proverbs  3 :19,  20 ;  8 :22-31. 

Proverbs  3 :  19-20  and  8  ;22-31  has  been  called  a  third  cosmology, 
(Cheyne,  Enc.  Brit.  "Cosmogony.") 

"What  is  its  purpose  and  its  value?  We  can  not  be  sure  of 
knowing  the  nature  of  this  cosmology  without  knowing  somethiiig 
of  the  Book  of  which  it  forms  only  a  small  part.  The  purpose  of 
the  Book  of  Provenbs  seems  to  be  to  present  the  essence  of  the  Law 
for  practical  life.  Much  attention  in  it  is  paid  to  the  form  of 
words,  beauty  of  style;  epigrammatic  gems  flash  from  its  pages. 
And  it  is  to  give  the  Law  in  a  reflective,  semi-philosophic  form. 
But  the  philosophy  is  always  practical,  not  speculative  but  for 
ordinary  life.  It  does  not  give  a  logic  or  psychology  of  ethics.  It 
does  not  use  the  word  ' '  conscience, ' '  or  the  word  '  *  duty. ' '  It  does 
not  seek  to  know  the  genesis  of  the  idea  of  moral  obligation.  It 
yields  the  hypothetical  rather  than  the  categorical  imperative.  Its 
interest  is  not  so  much  with  the  science  as  with  the  art  of  living. 
This  art,  however,  is  not  aesthetical,  but  practical.  It  is  a  manual 
for  helping  men  to  make  the  best  of  life.  This  can  only  be  done 
under  the  guidance  of  religion.  God  is  supreme,  absolute  in  power 
and  wisdom.  The  absoluteness  of  God  is  placed  in  bold  relief  by 
the  omission  of  all  mention  of  other  supernatural  beings,  even  such 
as  might  serve  administrative  purposes.  A  wise  divine  government 
is  assumed  as  the  presupposition  and  background  of  a  human  life 
well-governed.  Men  have  a  right  to  think,  but  wisdom  is  with  the 
Lord.  He,  however,  will  share  it  with  men ;  it  is  the  desire  of  the 
author  to  mediate  this  wisdom  to  men  (1:2-6).  Wisdom  begins 
with  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is,  religion  (1:7)  ;  its  end  is  a  well- 
ordered  life.  Wisdom  may  sustain  a  distant  relationship  to  phil- 
osophy, but  not  to  science.  It  starts  with  a  Supreme  Being,  who  is 
Governor  and  Preserver  of  a  moral  world.  "Wisdom  is  to  under- 
stand, so  far  as  it  is  permitted  to  man's  finite  intelligence,  the  mani- 
fold adaptation  and  harmony,  the  beauty  and  utility,  of  His  works 
and  ways,  and  to  turn  our  knowledge  of  them  to  practical  ac- 
count."   (Cambridge  Bible;  Proverbs,  p.  10.) 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  27 

In  the  eighth  chapter  Wisdom  is  personified,  and  brought  into 
connection  with  Creation.  She  speaks  of  herself  as  antedating 
various  typical  works  of  creation.  The  negative  form  of  this 
"cosmology"  reminds  us  of  the  second  Babylonian  account,  and 
gives  us  a  hint  that  here,  as  there,  the  main  point  is  not  to  describe 
Creation,  but  to  make  use  of  the  thought  of  Creation  for  an  ulterior 
aim.  One  aspect  of  the  teaching  is  already  made  clear,  in  the  less 
highly  poetic  form,  in  3 :19,  20 : 

' '  Jehovah,  by  wisdom,  founded  the  earth ; 
By  understanding  he  established  the  heavens. 
By  his  knowledge  the  depths  were  broken  up, 
And  the  skies  drop  down  the  dew." 

That  is,  the  world  is  not  the  product  of  blind  brutal  forces,  but 
is  the  product  of  the  good  God,  who  is  as  wise  as  He  is  good. 

The  statement  here  made  concerning  the  moral  and  physical 
world  is  perhaps  unsurpassed  in  the  Old  Testament.  Wisdom  in 
Creation  is  in  control  of  human  society.  The  essential  idea  is  that 
the  Universe  is  one,  there  is  one  cosmos.  Man  is  a  microcosm 
within  the  macrocosan.  The  light  of  the  world  should  light  every 
man.  The  eternal  wisdom  of  God  is  to  be  the  eternal  wisdom  of 
men.     (Toy,  Proverbs,  p.  xvii.) 

We  shall  not  stumble  over  the  fact  that  Wisdom  speaks  the 
language  of  men,  if  we  can  believe  her  "delight  was  with  the  sons 
of  men."  (8:31.)  The  passage  is  not  valuable  for  its  statement 
concerning  the  world,  but  for  its  statement  of  the  relation  of  God 
to  the  world,  which  is  independent  of  natural  knowledge  of  the 
world.  God  is  above  the  world,  and  He  does  not  place  man  under 
blind  forces  working  by  chance.  God  makes  wisdom  the  first-born 
of  His  creatures.  He  acts  according  to  wise  law,  but  this  law  is 
the  expression  of  His  own  Being.  We  have  here  a  unitary  view 
of  the  world  necessary  to  science,  and  a  spiritual  view  necessary  to 
religion.  Both  science  and  religion  are  interested  in  the  orderli- 
ness of  the  universe.  If  beauty  and  harmony  of  the  universe  emerge 
from  a  conflict  of  forces,  seemingly  at  war,  by  some  process  of 
evolution,  we  are  not  less  certain  that  a  Creative  Mind  is  necessary, 
back  of  the  process  and  in  the  process,  in  guidance  of  the  complex 
forces  to  the  attainment  of  the  harmony  and  beauty  of  it  all. 

The  burden  of  this  passage,  in  keeping  with    the    Book    of 


28  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

Proverbs  in  which  it  occurs,  is  practical.  The  moral  and  religious 
earnestness  is  seen  in  that  Wisdom  calls  to  men  to  seek  her  as  the 
supreme  good  of  life.  That  is,  the  law  of  life  is  the  law  of  creation. 
There  is  but  one  supreme  purpose  in  the  universe,  that  is,  God's 
purpose  in  the  creation  is  the  same  as  his  purpose  in  redemption. 
The  wisdom  of  God  is  to  flow  down  into  the  lives  of  men  that  they 
may  have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly.  The  purpose  of  God 
then  (whatever  may  be  the  outermost  reach  of  its  vast  curve)  is 
for  the  good,  for  the  salvation  of  men, 

"I  was  by  Him  *    *    * 
Rejoicing  in  His  habitable  earth ; 
(30,  31)  And  my  delight  was  with  the  sons  of  men, 

(36) -He  that  sinneth  against  me  wrongeth  his  own  soul; 
All  they  that  hate  me  love  death. 

(32)  Now,  therefore,  hearken  unto  me." 

Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  passage  than  vain  cos- 
mological  speculation,  or  pedantic  scientific  statements.  Its  pur- 
pose is  redemption.  Its  argument  is  that  there  is  a  Providence  that 
shapes  our  ends  wisely,  and  this  Providence  is  rooted  and  grounded 
in  the  Power,  Love  and  Wisdom  of  the  Creator. 

2.     Book  of  Job. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  idea  of  creation  plays  so  large 
a  part  in  the  Book  of  Job,  the  great  "epic  of  the  inner  life," 
Neither  Job  nor  his  friends  seem  to  have  any  doubt  as  to  God's 
existence,  or  that  he  was  a  Creator,  yet  there  is  something  wanting 
in  the  early  chapters  that  finds  place  in  later  chapters.  Is  it  not  a 
question  of  the  kind  of  Creator,  the  greatness  of  His  creation,  that 
\^  arises?  For  some  idea  of  creation  is  expressed  by  nearly  all  the 
speakers,  Eliphaz,  in  bis  first  speech,  asks :  ' '  Can  a  man  be  pure 
before  his  Maker?"  (4:17,)  God  is  the  Moral  Governor  of  the 
world,  so  that  the  man  who  trusts  in  Him  shall  be  in  league  with 
the  beasts  and  stones  of  the  earth,     (5:23  cf,  Rom,  8:28.) 

Bildad  sees  man  in  the  hand  of  God,  as  dependent  on  Him  as 
the  rush  is  dependent  on  water.  (8:11-13.)  That  God  has  created 
all  his  troulble  is  perfectly  clear  to  Job.  He  does  not  blame  the 
winds  that  have  striven  together  with  the  Sabeans  to  wreck  his 


TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION,  29 

happiness.  He  recognizes  the  "arrows  of  the  Almighty"  within 
him.  (6:4.)  It  is  just  because  he  is  in  the  hands  of  God  that  he 
is  so  burdened.  (7  :lf.)  He  asks  with  irony  if  he  is  a  sea  monster, 
the  writhing,  raging  sea  itself,  that  must  be  watched  lest  the 
Universe  suffer  harm.  He  can  not  escape  God's  hand — ^not  even 
at  night,  for  then  horrible  dreams  haunt  him.  He  cries,  **let  me 
alone."  Job  gives  a  wonderful  description  of  God's  power. 
(9:5-10.)  But  this  does  not,  at  the  time,  bring  him  rest  and  peace. 
In  fact,  in  this  chapter  (see  Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson  in  Cambridge 
Bible)  "Job's  spirit  reaches  the  lowest  abyss  of  its  alienation  from 
(jrod."  (9:24.)  "The  earth  is  given  into  the  hand  of  the  wicked: 
He  covereth  the  faces  of  the  Judges  thereof;  if  not  He,  wlw  then  is 
itf"  God's  power  is  great,  but  He  is  unmoral.  There  appears  in 
Job  a  balancing  of  God  as  He  at  the  time  appears  and  the  idea  of 
God  which  he  had  entertained  before.  "Thine  hands  have  made 
me  and  fashioned  me  together  round  about;  yet  thou  dost  destroy 
me !  Remember,  I  beseech  thee,  that  thou  hast  made  me  as  the  clay ; 
and  wilt  thou  bring  me  into  the  dust  again!"  (10:9-8.)  Will  a 
potter  make  a  beautiful  vessel  only  to  crumlble  it  into  dust  again? 
Why  did  God  ever  give  him  existence  (10:18)?  Job,  in  reply  to 
Zophar  's  speech,  says : 

"Who  knoweth  not  in  all  these 
That  the  hand  of  the  Lord  hath  wrought  this? 
In  whose  hand  is  the  souls  of  every  living  thing. 
And  the  breath  of  all  mankind."   (12 :9, 10.) 

EMphaz,  in  his  second  speech,  refers  to  Creation  and  asks,  sar- 
castically, if  Job  was  the  First  Man  (Wisdom?),  or,  if  he  was 
made  before  the  hills? 

In  reply  to  Bildad's  rather  weak  effort  on  the  greatness  of 
God,  Job  rises  to  eloquence  on  the  same  subject.  But  all  this 
afforded  Job  no  relief  from  the  dreadful  moral  inequalities  which 
he  saw  everywhere  about  him.  Job  exhibits  the  power  of  God  in 
Heaven,  Earth  and  Hades.  He  stretcheth  out  the  north  over  the 
empty  place  and  hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing.    (27:6.) 

When  Job  has,  with  a  few  poetic  touches,  recalled  some  won- 
ders of  God,  he  adds : 

* '  So  these  are  the  outskirts  of  His  ways ; 
And  how  small  a  whisper  is  that  which  we  hear  of  Him 
But  the  thunder  of  His  power   who    can    understand?'* 
(26:14.) 


30  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

We  see  but  the  outskirts ;  hear  but  a  whisper.  The  full  glory 
of  His  work,  the  thunder  of  His  power  is  not  within  the  limit  of 
man's  mind  (cf,  eh.  38). 

Elihu,  too,  shows  belief  in  a  creation.  He  recognizes  God  aa 
his  Maker.  (32 :22.)  The  Spirit  of  God  has  made  him,  the  breath 
of  the  Almighty  has  given  him  life,  (33:4.)  He  is  formed  of 
clay.  (33:6.)  In  his  view,  no  motive  for  injustice  could  be  found 
in  a  Creator,  and  it  is  inconceivable  in  the  Ruler  of  all.  (He  would 
say,  "Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?")  To  him  it 
is  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  God,  that  He  should  be  unjust. 
Joib  would  have  agreed  to  this  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity ;  now 
he  can  not  reconcile  this  thought  with  his  conscious  innocence. 

Elihu  will  still  further  ascribe  righteousness  to  his  Maker. 
He  discusses  the  incomparable  greatness  of  God  in  various  details 
of  nature.  (36:26ff.)  Elihu  would  have  Job  consider  the  wonders 
of  creation  and  bow  in  awe  and  reverence  before  their  Creator. 
(37:14-23.) 

One  climax  is  reached  in  chaxvter  28,  where  the  negative  result 
of  the  discussion  is  presented.  The  struggle  has  really  been  between 
the  voice  from  Sinai  and  the  voice  that  rang  out  clear  on  creation 
morning:  Let  there  be  light  and  life  to  the  whole  world.  It  is  a 
struggle  between  a  faith,  crippled  by  geography,  and  patriotism 
and  a  faith  wliich  has  a  "passion  for  the  planet."  The  voice  from 
Sinai  was  a  covenant  between  Jehovah  and  a  particular  people. 
Blessings  were  to  follow  loyalty,  cursings  to  follow  sin.  Moses  was 
not  a  poet,  but  a  law-giver  and  leader.  No  leader  can  make  subtle 
distinctions  if  he  is  to  direct  great  masses  of  men. 

This  voice  from  Sinai  was  wrought  out  in  beautiful  epigrams 
and  brought  home  to  the  heart  of  the  people  in  many  gems  under 
sanction  of  the  name  of  Solomon,  the  wisest  of  men. 

Wisdom  came  to  be  a  choice  word.  Life  had  partly  passed 
from  under  the  bare  commands  of  the  law.  Men  had  come  to  see 
the  beauty  of  virtue. 

Wisdom  persouiified  offers  herself  to  men.  If  they  will  but 
hearken  unto  her  reasonable  voice,  salvation  is  sure.  But  later  it 
comes  to  be  asked:  "Where  can  wisdom  be  found?"  To  the 
writer  of  Job  28,  the  radiant  figure  that  cried  unto  men  has  van- 
ished.   Now,  it  is  he  who  cries,  but  there  is  no  answer.    He  means 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  31 

by  this  to  tell  the  secret  that  has  forced  itself  irresistibly  upon  his 
ovMi  bereft  heart,  that  a  knowledge  of  the  world-plan  is  beyond  the 
intellectual  grasp  of  man.  It  is  assumed  that  there  is  a  fixed 
order.  The  pihenomena  breaking  in  upon  man  are  manifestations 
of  God  fulfilling  Himself  in  many  ways.  But  wisdom,  the  se(?ret 
of  the  Lord,  is  hidden  from  men.  Man  has  a  "wisdom,"  to  De 
sure,  assigned  to  him.  It  is  reverent  obedience,  the  fear  of  the 
Lord. 

But  the  grand  climax  is  not  in  any  intellectual  answer  that  is 
to  come  from  the  discussion,  but  in  the  religious  solution  in  the 
person  of  Job  himself. 

After  one  trial,  it  is  said:  "In  all  this  Job  sinned  not  nor 
imputed  wrong  to  God. "  (1 :22. )  After  another :  ' '  Shall  we  receive 
good  at  the  hand  of  God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  evil  ?  In  all  this 
Job  sinned  not  with  his  lips."  (2:10.)  This  is  the  ideal  position 
held  by  Job  at  the  beginning  of  his  trial,  but  he  fell  from  it.  ' '  Job 
opened  his  mouth  and  cursed  his  day" —  (3:1)  "a  kind  of  wild 
impossible  revision  of  Providence."  Job  has  not  been  so  success- 
ful in  his  trial  that  he  may  simply  be  informed  that  his  aflSictions 
came  upon  him  as  a  trial  of  righteousness.  Furthermore,  through 
the  gloom  that  settled  upon  him  he  has  looked  upon  the  world  at 
large  and  found  insoluble  problems  everywhere,  and  has  defiantly 
contended  with  God.  Job  has  failed  to  find  God  in  the  world  by 
induction  from  facts,  when  he  turned  from  fellowship  with  Him. 
And  God  does  not  come  back  to  Job  by  the  way  of  the  under- 
standing. Job  must  yet  prove  himself  disinterested,  against  the 
insinuation  of  the  Satan.  He  must  rise  to  something  of  the  spiritu- 
ality of  the  Psalmist  who  said :  ' '  Whom  have  I .  in  heaven  but 
thee?  And  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  beside  thee." 
(Ps.  73:24,25.) 

To  accomplish  this  God  reveals  Himself,  "In  a  series  of 
splendid  pictures  from  inanimate  nature  and  the  world  of  animal 
life  He  makes  all  the  glory  of  His  being  pass  before  Job."  His 
humbled  answer  is:  "Now  mine  eye  seeth  thee."  There  is  no  solu- 
tion given,  but  the  God  of  Creation  and  Providence  reveals  His 
glory  in  creation  and  providence.  The  purpose  was  not  to  com- 
municate information  concerning  creation,  but  to  reveal  the 
Creator.    This  is  done  in  ch.  38ff. 

The  Book  of  Job  is  a  study  in  Providence.  This  thought  is 
inseparably  connected  with  creation,  which  has  an  emphasis  here 


32  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

■unparalleled  except  in  Isaiah  40ff.  The  main  question  is,  Can 
Religion  live  with  the  current  idea  of  God?  The  answer  of  the 
Book  is  not  simply  negative ;  it  presents  to  us  an  idea  of  God  that 
will  function  in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  the  nation.  It  is 
very  far  from  the  purpose  of  the  Book  of  Job  to  teach  science,  or 
even  theology  in  a  narrow  sense,  least  of  all  to  give  a  theor&tical 
theodicy.  The  purpose  of  the  Book  is  practical,  deeply  religious, 
bot  merely  poetic  or  p^hilosophical.  It  is  likely  the  author  had 
before  him  a  particular,  trying  experience  of  the  people  of  Israel, 
when  suffering  fell  upon  many  who  were  innocent,  and  when  a 
larger  law  was  needed  than  was  furnished  by  the  national  idea  of 
God.  God  must  transcend  the  limits  of  a  national  patron  and  be 
the  God  of  majesty  and  power,  still  near  but  unsearchable  in  His 
being.  Such  an  idea  of  God  is  already  implicit  in  the  "faith  Israel 
has  in  the  Creator.  This  thought  of  creation  has  never  been  want- 
ing wholly,  but  as  children,  the  people  of  Israel  never  brought  it 
to  consciousness,  never  came  to  see  its  bearing  on  Providence. 
Now,  the  thought  of  Creation  and  Providence  must  be  universalized. 
The  voice  out  of  the  storm  does  not  speak  science.  In  form,  we 
have  to  do  with  Oriental  poetry.  These  pictures  are  not  intended 
to  convey  natural  knowledge  concerning  the  world,  but  to  reveal 
the  God  of  redemption  in  his  relation  to  the  world.  The  passage  is 
like  the  great  hymns  of  creation — its  theme  is  God,  His  Majesty 
and  Glory. 

The  difficulty  with  Job  was  that  his  theology  was  too  narrow, 
his  Providence  too  special.  God  is  conducting  a  universe  and  the 
land  of  Uz  must  submit  to  play  only  a  part.  Job's  view  that  God 
is  the  source  of  all  is  correct,  but  His  infinite  mercy  must  balance  His 
Unfin'ite  power.  There  must  always  be  left  place  for  suffering 
beyond  retribution,  for  suffering  enters  into  the  wise  plan  of  the 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world.  It  is  the  coming  of  God  into 
Job's  life  that  restores  his  peace  and  prosperity.  It  would  appear 
that  there  is  a  climax  reached  (in  ch.  38)  in  the  doctrine  of  crea- 
tion. The  thought  of  creation  in  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Book, 
though  sometimes  rising  to  eloquence,  falls  far  short  of  that  por- 
trayed in  the  theophany.  But,  still,  the  whole  Book  seems  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  creation. 

Moreover,  we  see  from  Job  himself  a  man  may  have  much 
knowledge  in  mind,  and  still  not  really,  for  the  time,  believe  in  God 
as  Creator.    Only  he  fully  believes  who  overcomes  the  world  in  the 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  33 

power  of  the  Creator.  "Man,  by  wisdom,  knew  not  God." 
"Natural  religion  ends  always  with  a  sigh,"  (Expositor's  Job, 
p.  290.)  It  is  when  God  reveals  Himself — in  the  glory  of  Creation 
and  Providence — that  the  human  spirit  can  find  repentance  and 
rest. 

The  Idea  of  Creation  in  Later  Prophetism  (Universal). 

(Isaiah  40-66.) 

The  great  thought  of  the  absolute  sovereignty  and  omnipotence 
of  God  which  flowered  out  so  gloriously  in  the  Exile,  was  like  a 
'.two-century  plant,  whose  roots  lay  back  with  the  eighth  century 
prophets.  Already,  in  Amos,  this  thought  comes  to  expression  in 
his  ethical  monotheism,  as  he  pitilessly  tears  away  the  hedge  that 
separates  Israel  from  the  world,  and  says  to  the  people,  there  is 
but  one  righteousness  and  one  God,  and  there  are  no  favorites  of 
heaven,  but  such  as  walk  uprightly.  Again,  in  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Habakkuk,  Jehovah  is  supreme  and  uses  Assyria  or  Babylonia  as 
a  rod  of  His  anger  for  the  chastisement  of  Israel.  In  all  this  the 
doctrine  of  universal  sovereignty  lies  implicitly,  'if  not  explicitly. 
But  only  in  the  Exile  could  Israel's  lesson  be  fully  learned.  It  is 
only  in  the  flood  of  great  waters  that  Israel  can  come  to  conscious- 
ness that  she  is  founded  upon  an  Eternal  Rock.  The  prophet,  in 
the  earlier  days,  was  a  national  preacher.  He  spoke  for  Jehovah  to 
Jehovah's  people.  He  was  a  limited  minister  under  a  covenant. 
Others  might  do  as  they  pleased,  as  for  him  and  his  people,  they 
would  serve  Jehovah.  Jehovah  had  pledged  Himself  by  the  most 
solemn  sanctions  that  He  would  be  their  God  and  fight  their  bat- 
tles. It  was  not  necessary,  under  these  circumstances,  to  think  of 
Jehovah  as  infinite  or  omnipotent,  if  He  were  only  great  and  pow- 
erful enough  to  overcome  all  His  and  Israel's  enemies.  But  Israel 
was  unfaithful  to  the  covenant.  She  became  corrupt  in  morals. 
The  ethical  prophets  began  to  point  out  that  Israel  would  go  into 
exile,  not  because  Jehovah  was  not  strong,  but  because  He  was 
righteous  and  would  purify  His  people.  It  was  this  ethical  insight, 
or,  to  speak  theologically,  this  divine  guidance  granted  the 
prophets,  that  eventually  saved  the  people  of  Israel.  But  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  who  went  into  exile  had  no  real  conception  of 


J. 


34  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

the  greatness  of  Jehovah.  He  was  to  them  the  God  of  their  history, 
so  full  of  miracle  and  wonder  in  the  past;  but,  now  they  were 
brought  down  to  the  dust  of  humiliation.  Now,  they  were  the 
abject  of  taunt-songs  of  those  who  said,  ''Where  is  thy  God?"  It 
was  in  a  situation  like  this  that  the  old  half-formed  thought  of  a 
Creator  came, to  have  a  new  and  larger  meaning.  The  message  of 
the  prophet  of  Isaiah  40-66  'begins  to  appear  in  the  prologue 
(40:1-11).  The  prophet's  thought  already  moves  in  a  super- 
natural atmosphere.  Already,  in  the  deep  darkness  that  .precedes 
the  dawn,  he,  with  his  opened  ear,  can  hear  voices  in  the  air,  voices 
of  those  who  are,  like  servants  risen  before  the  dawn,  preparing 
for  the  great  day  that  is  about  to  come  to  Israel,  and  as  he  listens, 
one  of  these  heralds  of  the  morning  speaks  to  him  and  bids  him 
(who  had  the  ear  of  his  people)  utter  a  proclamation  that  would 
remove  a  doubt  from  the  minds  of  the  people,  an  awful  doubt,  that 
the  God  of  Israel  might  not  be  able  to  redeem  His  people.  The 
prophet  sounds  out  the  note  as  a  bugle  blast — ^the  note  that  rings 
through  all  his  message,  that  the  word  of  God  (the  word  that 
creates  and  upholds  all  things)  can  not  fail,  it  shall  stand  forever. 

After  the  prologue  the  first  verses  (40:12-31)  are  devoted  to 
a  connected  discourse  in  which  the  great  theme  of  the  prophet  is 
treated  at  length.  He  presents  to  two  classes,  those  who  have  been 
tempted  to  idolatry  and  those  who  are  faithful  to  Jehovah,  but  de- 
spondent, the  same  remedy.  He  presents  to  them  the  Creator  of 
the  ends  of  the  earth  who  can  do  all  His  holy  will.  He  measured 
the  waters  of  the  sea  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand,  and  meted  out 
heaven  with  the  span,  and  comprehended  the  dust  of  the  earth  in 
a  small  measure,  and  weighed  the  mountains  in  scales,  and  the  hills 
in  a  balance.   (12.) 

In  other  words,  God  handles  the  world  as  men  handle  their 
small  weights  and  measures.  The  prophet  is  not  here  introducing 
a  proof  for  God's  existence,  nor  that  He  is  a  Creator  (Gen.  2:4bff), 
but  that  He  is  the  Creator  of  the  Universe,  with  incomparable 
power.  H€  is  also  a  Creator  with  infinite  wisdom.  He  needed  no 
counselor;  all  wisdom  is  with  Him  to  guide  His  power.  As  for 
nations,  they  are  like  the  small  dust  that  scarcely  affects  the  bal- 
ances. No  image  can  be  formed  of  Him;  He  sits  above  the  earth 
and  men  in  their  perspective  are  to  Him  as  grasshoppers  are  to 
men.  With  ease.  He  throws  over  men  the  blue,  purple,  and  gold 
curtain,  under  which  the  children  of  men  may  dwell.    Even  princes 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  35 

are  nothing  before  Him.  The  only  symlbol  of  His  power  at  all 
worthy  of  Him  is  seen  in  His  creation.  But,  even  the  heavenly 
bodies  (w^hich  deluded  men  worship)  are  only  minions  of  the  Great 
Creator.  He  created  them,  and  He  marshals  them  as  a  host;  He 
calls  them  by  name,  and  not  one  fails  in  obedient  response.  Israel, 
then,  is  urged  to  think  noble  thoughts  of  the  Creator  of  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  He  suffers  no  change  or  weariness ;  He  is  from  age  to 
age  the  same.  Men,  indeed,  grow  weary  and  faint,  but  they  may, 
if  they  will,  renew  their  strength  by  waiting  on  God.  (27-31.) 

All  who  strive  with  Israel  shall  be  as  nothing,  and  shall  perish. 
(41:11.)  By  God's  power,  the  worm  Jacob  will  be  changed  into 
a  threshing  machine  and  men  shall  be  as  chaff  (41:14-16),  and  the 
hand  of  the  Creator  will  be  evident.     (41:20.) 

The  servant  of  the  Lord  is  endued  with  the  power  of  the 
Spirit,  so  that  he  may  use  even  the  gentlest  methods  and  never  be 
discouraged  and  never  fail.  For,  with  him  is  the  power  from  the 
Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  who  is  the  source  of  all  life  in  frail 
man.  (Cf.  Ps.  104:29,30.)  The  logic  of  the  prophet  is  clearly 
expressed  in  the  first  verse  of  the  forty-third  chapter:  "Thus 
saith  Jehovah  that  created  thee  *  *  *  formed  thee,  *  *  *  fear 
not,  I  have  redeemed  thee."  (It  is  a  completed  fact  in  the  fu- 
ture.) The  prophet  seems  fairly  to  revel  in  the  thought,  carrying 
it  down  to  the  individual :  Every  one  *  *  *  whom  I  have  created 
(hara),  whom  I  have  formed  {yatsar),  yea,  whom  I  have  made 
{asali).  (43:7.) 

He  who  created  Israel  by  making  a  way  in  the  sea  and  a  path 
in  the  mighty  waters,  covering  the  horse  and  the  chariot  in  the  Red 
Sea,^will  now  create  a  new  Israel  by  another  exodus  far  surpassing 
the  first  great  event  in  Israel's  history.  With  what  withering  sar- 
casm is  the  poor  idol,  made  by  a  man  dependent  for  his  strength 
on  bread  and  .water,  set  over  against  Jehovah  that  maketh  all 
things,  that  stretcheth  out  the  heavens  alone ;  that  spreadeth  abroad 
the  earth.     (44 :12ff  and  44 :24.) 

The  absoluteness  of  the  Creator  appears  in  45:5a,  7:  "I  am 
Jehovah,  and  there  is  none  else ;  beside  me  there  is  no  God ;  I  form 
the  light,  and  create  darkness;  I  make  peace  and  create  evil  (ca- 
lamity) ;  I  am  Jehovah  that  doeth  all  these  things."  This  passage 
sets  aside  all  dualism  and  leaves  God  absolute  sovereign.  The 
figure  of  the  potter  fashioning  an  earthen  vessel  is  used  to  teach 
proper  submission  of  creature  to    Creator.      (.45:91)     Again,    in 


36  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

45 :12, 13,  we  have  creation  and  redemption  juxtaposed, — the 
Creator  raises  up  Cyrus,  the  deliverer.  We  have  a  very  strong 
passage  in  45:18f:  "Jehovah  that  created  the  heavens,  the  God 
that  formed  the  earth,  that  established  it  and  created  it  not  in  vain, 
that  formed  it  to  be  inhabited."  Jehovah's  purpose,  then,  is  not  the 
destruction  of  men,  but  their  salvation;  this  purpose  can  not  be 
frustrated.  Verse  22  shows  the  outward  reach  of  this  purpose: 
"Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the  earth:  For  I 
am  God,  and  there  is  none  else."  The  favorite  theme  in  familiar 
words  is  returned  to  in  48 :12,  The  old  doubt  is  lovingly  answered 
again  in  50:2:  "Is  my  hand  shortened  at  all  that  it  can  not  re- 
deem? Or,  have  I  no  power  to  deliver?"  Again,  "I  am  He  that 
comforteth  you  *  *  *  hast  thou  forgotten  Jehovah,  thy  Maker, 
that  stretched  forth  the  heavens,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
earth?"  (51:12,13.)  Only  one  more  reference  need  be  added: 
"The  Holy  one  of  Israel  is  thy  redeemer;  the  God  of  the  whole 
earth  shall  He  be  called.    (54:5.) 

This  copious,  although  by  no  means  exhaustive,  array  of  refer- 
ences, will  be  enough  to  convince  us  of  the  richness  and  nobleness 
of  our  prophet's  thought  of  God,  and  it  has  become  clear  that  the 
thought  of  redemption,  deliverance,  is  the  burden  of  his  message. 
Still  further,  it  is  evident  that  the  idea  of  Creator  has  colored  all 
the  prophet's  thought.  He  uses  a  variety  of  words  to  express  his 
idea  of  creation,  but  he  uses  one  word,  'bara,  fifteen  times  in  six- 
teen chapters.  (40-55.)  This  word  occurs  very  rarely,  if  at  all,  in 
genuine  passages  in  pre-Exilic  literature.  It  does  not  necessarily 
mean  creation  out  of  nothing,  but  it  is  the  strongest  word  for  crea- 
tion in  the  Hebrew  language,  and  is  restricted  to  effortless  activity 
of  the  divine  volition. 

We  have  in  this  section  of  Scripture  a  brilliant  example  of  thd 
power  of  religious  idealism.  This  great  evangelical  prophet  comes 
.very  near  the  idealism  of  Jesus.  Jesus  was  filled  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Father.  If  so,  then  he  sees  the  rain  and  sunshine 
falling  on  the  just  and  the  unjust,  and  the  Father's  good  pleasure 
done  in  an  evil  world.  So,  in  his  own  time  and  measure,  the 
prophet  of  the  Exile,  starting  with  the  idea  of  God  within  his  own 
consciousness,  can  not  only  read  off  the  things  that  are  to  come,  but 
his  very  faith  becomes  one  of  the  factors  in  creating  the  new  day 
for  which  he  looks.  How  different  it  is  with  Job.  He  has  to  listen 
to  the  humbling  question,  "Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foun- 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  37 

dation  of  the  earth?"  And  even  when  he  comes  face  to  face  with 
the  Creator  the  great  doctrine  of  Isa.  53  is  hidden  from  him.  He 
has  not  learned  that  the  Creator  of  the  world  is  the  world's  re- 
deemer, and  that  even  the  Great  Captain  of  Salvation  has  to  be 
made  perfect  through  suffering. 

The  Idea  of  Creation  in  the  Priestly  Element  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Gen.  1-2 :4a. 

We  come  now  to  the  classic  passage  of  the  Old  Testament  on 
the  subject  of  creation.  Up  to  this  point  it  has  been  our  conten- 
tion that  the  doctrine  of  creation  in  the  Scriptures  is  not  a  cos- 
mological  theory,  dealing  speculatively  with  the  method  of  origin, 
or  with  second  causes,  but  that  it  is  a  construct  of  faith,  and 
expresses  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world  of  men.  If  this  view 
does  not  hold  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  our  theory  fails,  for 
the  chain  can  not  be  stronger  than  its  weakest  link.  And  it  is  per- 
fectly certain  that  Genesis  1  is  a  link  by  itself,  and  that  if  any- 
where in  the  Scriptures  there  is  a  scientific  deliverance,  it  is  here. 
For,  has  this  chapter  not  been  the  battle  ground  in  the  warfare — 
the  age-long  warfare — between  Science  and  Religion,  in  which 
both  parties  alike  agreed  that  the  document  in  question  was  scien- 
tific,— the  scientist,  however,  contending  that  the  science  was 
falsely  so  called? 

Even  when  concessions  have  been  made,  to  the  effect  that  the 
object  in  view  of  the  writer  was  not  to  teach  science,  it  has  still 
been  contended  that  he  must  agree  with  the  results  of  all  true 
science.  As  one  writer  says:  "While  earnestly  maintaining  that 
the  inspired  history  of  creation  was  given  for  the  instruction  of 
unscientific  persons  and  is,  therefore,  theological  and  not  scientific, 
we  also  believe  that  all  truth  is  one,  and  that  all  revelation,  whether 
in  Scripture  or  in  nature,  must  be  ultimately  harmonious.  Science 
in  its  last  generalization,  must  be  theology,  and  theology,  in  its 
proper  development,  must  be  science.  *  *  *  We  are,  therefore, 
justified  in  the  expectation  that  the  revelation  in  the  Scriptures, 
when  rightly  interpreted  (this  is  to  be  admitted  in  a  sense  dif- 
ferf^nt  from  the  writer's),  will  contain  nothing  that  is  inconsistent 
with  the  scientific  interpretation  of  nature.  While  we  hold  that 
there  are  no  untimely  anticipations  of  scientific  discovery  in 
Genesis,  yet  we  expect  that  when  scientific  discoveries  are  made, 


TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 


^ 


the  congruity  and  dignity  of  the  moral  and  religious  lesson  shall 
not  be  defeated  and  marred."  (Cocker  op.  cit.,  p.  137.) 

But  the  value  of  Gen.  1  does  not  lie  in  any  science  supposed 
to  be  implicit  in  it.  All  expressions  of  empirical  knowledge  of  the 
world  must  bear  the  test  of  scientific  criticism.  This  knowledge  has 
no  vital  connection  with  the  knowledge  which  is  of  faith.  The  one 
has  to  do  with  our  empirical  apprehension  of  the  world,  the  other 
with  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world.  The  relation  of  God  to  the 
world  may  be  stated  apart  from  empirical  knowledge  of  the  world, 
since  the  God  of  Christian  faith,  in  His  being,  is  distinct  from  the 
world.     (Kaftan's  Dogmatik,  cf.  Rom.  8:28.) 

The  Biblical  view  of  the  world  involves  two  things :  The  abso- 
lute dependence  of  the  world  on  God,  and  the  necessity  that  it  shall 
serve  God's  purpose.  How  it  came  to  be  dependent  on  Him  is 
related  in  the  story  of  creation.  (Ps.  24:1,  2.)  This  story  is  given 
in  its  purest  in  the  sign-language,  the  un-vpcal  speech,  of  the  firma- 
ment and  heavenly  bodies  (Ps.  19:l-3),(^ut  when  men  begin  to 
tell  the  story  they  must  speak  in  the  language  of  men,  and  as  the 
language  of  men  of  one  time  is  not  the  same  as  that  of  another 
•time,  we  must  have  some  clue,  some  guide,  in  our  investigation. 
The  writer  of  Gen.  1  is  of  the  priestly  class,  and  we  may  know 
from  his  other  writings  in  the  Hexateuch,  where  his  interest  lies. 
He  is  deeply  religious,  vigorously  monotheistic,  but  he  looks  at 
religion  from  the  priestly  point  of  view.  The  second  part  of  God's 
relation  to  the  v/orld,  that  it  must  serve  His  purpose,  will  be 
treated  by  him  with  a  different  emphasis  from  that  of  an  equally 
religious  prophetic  writeh  In  carrying  out  the  religious  purpose 
the  priestly  writer  dwells  with  interest  on  points  which  were  of  im- 
portance to  him,  but  which  do  not  affect  the  creation  idea  itself. 
!The  order  of  creation,  the  duration,  the  culmination  in  a  day  of 
rest,  are  all  of  importance  to  the  sacred  writer,  but  they  are  not 
central  in  the  idea  of  creation.  The  writer's  purpose,  to  give  to 
God  the  honor  due  to  His  name  in  creation  and  redemption,  is  of 
eternal  value,  but  his  method  was  historically  conditioned.  The 
statement  that  the  narrator's  purpose  was  not  mainly  religious 
(Wellhausen)  is  surprising.  He  could,  indeed,  have  "said  it  more 
distinctly  and  simply,"  that  "God  made  the  world,  and  made  it 
good,"  but  he  could  not  thereby  have  accomplished  his  supreme 
aim  of  showing  God's  relation  to  the  world,  which  he  conceived 
under  the  limitation  of  the  theocracy. 


TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  39 

The  purpose  of  the  author  may  be  set  forth  by  a  quo- 
tation: "The  writer  of  the  opening  chapter  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  (1:1-2 :4a)  sets  before  himself  the  task  of  giving  a  compre- 
hensive survey  of  the  origins  of  Israel's  history.  It  was  his  pur- 
pose to  show  that  the  theocracy  which  became  historically  realized 
in  Israel  as  hierarchy  was  the  end  and  aim  of  the  creation  of  the 
world,  (Holzinger.)  To  his  consciousness  Israel  and  Israel's 
sacerdotal  institutions  stand  central  to  the  great  movement  of  his- 
tory and  he  consistently  works  out  this  grandiose  conception  to  its 
ultimate  origins.  Accordingly,  he  unfolds  the  narrative  in  suc- 
cessive gradations,  the  scope  of  which  narrows  from  the  universal 
to  the  particular,  as  it  passes  from  heaven  and  earth  to  Adam,  from 
Adam  to  Noah,  from  Noah  to  Abraham,  and,  lastly,  from  Abra- 
ham to  Israel  and  his  descendants."  (Hasting's  Bib.  Diet.,  under 
"Cosmogony.") 

Under  the  influence  of  the  exalted  idea  of  the  God  of  the 
theocracy,  who,  by  the  Exile  and  by  the  glorious  Restoration,  had 
shown  Himself  above  all,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  Sabbath, 
which  was  the  corner  stone  of  the  theocracy,  nothing  could  be  more 
natural  than  the  magnificent  picture  of  God  creating  by  the  word 
of  His  power,  in  the  space  of  six  days,  and  all  very  good.  He  does 
not  feel  called  upon  to  prove  his  doctrine  any  more  than  He  feels 
called  upon  to  prove  the  existence  of  God,  which  no  writer  in  the 
Old  Testament  thinks  necessary.  He  does  not  give  an  argument; 
he  does  not  establish  a  doctrine  ^ij  reasoning ;  he  gives  a  panoramic 
picture  of  the  Divine  Activity,  like  the  great  hymns  of  creation, 
only  more  orderly  and  less  imaginative. 

There  are  two  ways  of  viewing  the  divine  activity  brought  to- 
gether in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  first,  that  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
"brooding  upon  the  waters,  suggesting  the  thought  of  divine  near- 
ness or  immanence ;  second,  that  of  God  standing  above,  unentangled 
with  the  web  of  His  world  actualizing  His  will  by  a  word.  These  two 
modes  are  so  deftly  interwoven  as  to  present  a  unitary  view.  The 
parallel  sometimes  cited  between  God's  creative  activity  as  given 
in  Gen.  1,  and  that  of  Marduk  in  making  a  garment  disappear  and 
reappear,  is  not  to  be  taken  very  seriously.  The  god  who  has 
to  conquer  at  such  great  peril,  and  with  such  undaunted 
courage  as  to  win  fifty  titles,  before  he  can  become  a 
creator,  is  at  the  farthest  remove  from  the  God  of  Israel,  who,  by 
His  spirit,  and  by  His  word  of  free,  unhindered  power,  ' '  spake,  and 
it  was  done."  (Ps.  33:9.) 


40  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

Does  this  passage  teaeh  creation  out  of  nothing? 

(1.)  The  question  is  not  settled  if  we  take  Gen,  1:1  as 
a  superscription,  making  a  general  statement  prior  to  the  real 
account.  Ordinarily  interpreted,  ** heaven  and  earth"  means  the 
universe,  and  the  statement  of  the  text  is  absolutely  sweeping. 
But  this  would  leave  the  creation  of  matter  undetermined,  ' '  heaven 
and  earth"  being  a  term  used  for  the  finished  world.  (Gen.  2:l-4a, 
14:19-22;  Ex.  31:17.)     It  could  not  then  mean  matter  in  Gen.  1:1. 

But,  still  further,  hara  does  not  guarantee  the  meaning  of 
creation  out  of  nothing.  It  means  primarily,  to  hew,  or  shape ;  in 
usage  it  is  restricted  to  divine  activity  in  producing  something  new, 
but  does  not  necessarily  involve  creation  out  of  nothing,  as  shown 
«by  1 :21,  5  :lf ,  where  existent  material  is  used. 

(2)  But  the  verse  is  not  a  superscription  giving  a  statement 
prior  to  creation,  B'reshith  can  not  introduce  an  independent  sen- 
tence, as  grammarians  point  out,  and  moreover  v.  2  has  the  form 
of  a  Hebrew  circumstantial  clause.  So  the  translation  then  be- 
comes (according  to  Ewald,  Schrader,  Schultz,  etc.)  :  "In  the 
beginning  when  God  created  heaven  and  earth, — now,  the  earth 
was  without  form  and  void,  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
deep,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  was  brooding  upon  the  waters, — God 
^aid.  Let  there  be  Light."  This  passage  says  nothing  as  to  the 
origin  of  matter.  It  says  the  first  act  of  the  Existing  Cosmos  was 
the  creation  of  light.  The  independent  existence  of  matter 
is  not  denied  categorically,  but  there  is  no  room  for 
such  a  doctrine.  God  is  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth.  (Gen. 
14:19-22.)  He  makes  everything  good,  that  is,  to  serve  His  own 
purpose,  without  let  or  hindrance.  He  speaks  and  matter  obeys. 
He  is  absolute  Lord  of  all. 


The  Idea  of  Creation  in  the  Psalms. 

The  idea  of  creation  appears  in  manifold  forms  in  the  Psalms, 
Psalm  8  has  been  called  a  lyric  echo  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  crea- 
tion, (Delitzsch,)  This  is  a  hymn  to  God  and  not  a  glorifying  of 
man,  except  insofar  as  it  teaches  of  the  grace  of  God  to  man.  The 
point  for  us  in  the  Psalm  is  the  use  made  of  the  creation-idea.  It 
exalts  God,  makes  His  gracious  condescension  more  wonderful.  It 
shows  how  it  is  possible  that  the  infinite  God  can  care  for  frail 
man.    Man  is  made  but  a  little  lower  than  God  (5),  and  through 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  41 

the  image  he  bears  he  becomes  God's  vicegerent  on  earth,  exercis- 
ing dominion  over  all  inferior  creation.  The  theme  of  the  Psalm 
is  placed  at  the  beginning  and  also  at  the  end:  **How  glorious  is 
thy  name  in  all  the  earth."  God's  name  is  glorious,  that  is.  His 
manifestion  of  Himself.  And  this  name  is  partly  known,  through 
the  same  moon  and  stars,  throughout  the  world — "in  all  the 
earth."  It  is  the  hope  of  the  community,  singing  this  hymn,  that 
all  the  earth  may  fully  know — learning  through  Israel  and  submit- 
ting to  God  (salvation). 

In  the  19th  Psalm  we  have  a  hymn  to  the  God  of  the  skies  by 
day,  as  in  Psalm  8  we  had  a  night  Psalm  singing  of  the  moon  and 
stars;  then,  in  the  closing  verses,  we  have  the  exaltation  of  the 
Law — the  sun  of  the  soul.  The  silent,  but  strong  and  powerful 
message  goes  everywhere,  "even  to  the  end  of  the  earth."  "The 
work  of  His  hand"  will  leave  men  no  excuse.  God's  glory  must 
shine  down  on  men  from  every  quarter  of  the  heavens.  The  sun 
is  the  most  impressive  of  God's  creations;  the  poet  describes  in 
glowing  language  its  grandeur.  It  is  like  a  bridegroom,  like  a 
hero,  and  as  it  goes  forth  from  its  chamber,  nothing  escapes  its  all- 
permeating  influence.  Think  of  the  Creator  of  this  glorious  heav- 
enly body,  the  most  glorious  object  within  our  view. 

The  use  made  of  the  idea  of  creation  here  is  to  give  men  a 
noble  view  of  God.  And  then  this  divine  greatness  comes  to  men  in 
His  equally  glorious  law. 

Psalm  24  teaches  us  that  the  earth,  with  its  fulness  and  inhabi- 
tants, belong  to  Jehovah,  because  He  founded  it  and  established  it. 
The  worshipper  in  Zion  must  remember  his  God  is  the  God  of  the 
whole  earth.  Now  that  God's  ownership  and  sovereignty  are  ex- 
pressed, it  becomes  a  question  who  can  share  the  blessings  of  sal- 
vation, Avhich  is  mediated  by  Zion.  Thus  we  have  another  exam- 
ple of  the  order :    Creation,  Salvation. 

Psalm  33  is  a  hymn  of  praise  to  the  Creator  and  Preserver. 
The  Psalm  is  late ;  reference  to  the  account  of  Creation  in  Gen.  1  is 
appairent.    (6.) 

The  heathen  have  'been,  and  shall  be,  outwitted  by  Jehovah. 
They  trust  in  horses  and  human  strength  (16, 17),  but  Jehovah  is 
Israel's  power.  God  is  not  simply  a  national  God.  He  sees  "all 
mankind  (13b),  He  fashioned  the  hearts  of  all  (15a),  He  frus- 
trates heathen  designs  (10),  but  his  own  purposes  are  eternal  and 
can  not  be  thwarted  (11).      Israel,  however,  is  His  peculiar  herit- 


42  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

age  (12).  Those  who  trust  in  Jehovah  will  have  their  souls  de- 
livered from  death  (18,  19). 

The  Psalm  is  in  a  joyful  exultant  mood,  "For  Jehovah's  word 
is  right"  (4),  His  goodness  manifest  everywhere  (5).  Therefore, 
He  should  be  praised.  The  mention  of  the  word  brings  to  mind  the 
great  saying  in  Genesis  1 :3. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  G-od  discomfitted  the  enemy  for 
us,  as  by  a  word,  for  by  His  word  the  heavens  were  made  ( 6 ) ,  "  He 
spake  and  it  was!  He  commanded,  and  it  stood  forth."  (9.)  The 
God  of  Grace  is  the  omnipotent  God  of  creation.  On  the  power  of 
the  word  compare  Ecclus.  43 :26,  and  He^b.  1 :3. 

Psalm  74  is  late  and  comes  from  a  period  of  persecution,  the 
Chaldean  or  Maccabean  time.  The  Psalmist  cries,  "How  long?" 
It  seems  mysterious  that  the  God  who  gave  His  people  such  a 
glorious  victory  over  the  Egyptians  (12,13),  and  has  provided 
lights  in  the  heavens,  and  dry  land  on  the  earth,  has  ordained  sum- 
mer and  winter,  should  now  forsake  his  people.  Only  deliverance 
can  befit  the  Creator,  who  created  the  world  in  good  faith.  (15-17.) 
It  is  impossible  to  think  God  will  allow  His  dove  (Israel)  to  perish. 
(19.)    "Arise,  O  God,  plead  thine  own  cause."   (22.) 

Psalm  89  sings  of  the  loving-kindness  of  Jehovah.  (1.)  The 
mercy  of  God  endures  forever,  His  faithfulness  will  be  established 
on  the  very  heavens.  (2.)  The  heavens  will  praise  the  wonders  of 
Jehovah.  (5).  Jehovah  is  incomparable,  mighty,  and  faithful. 
(6,  8.)   He  rules  the  proud  sea.     (9.) 

The  heavens  and  earth  are  His,  for  He  has  founded  them. 
(Cf.  24:1,2.)  Even  the  mountains,  Tabor  and  Hermon,  rejoice  in 
the  name  of  Jehovah.  We  see  in  this  Psalm  again  the  thoughts 
of  creation  and  salvation  brought  close  together.  (12ff.) 

Psalm  95  :l-7  is  a  joyful  song  to  Jehovah.  He  is  a  great  God, 
He  is  above  all  gods.  ' '  Above  all  gods, ' '  Cheyne  takes  as  a  sarcastic 
reference  to  popular  phraseology,  so  that  the  monotheism  is  abso- 
lute. Compare  Ps.  96 :4-6,  where  it  is  stated  that  the  heathen  gods 
are  idols,  but  Jehovah  made  the  heavens. 

The  song  rests  on  four  thoughts  of  Jehovah :  He  is  the  Rock, 
as  dependable  for  help  as  the  eternal  hills.  (1.)  He  is  also  a  King 
over  all  (3),  in  His  control  are  the  heights  and  depths.  It  is  His 
good  pleasure  to  be  a  Shepherd  of  His  people.  (7.)  But  all  goes 
back  to  His  unlimited  ownership  as  Creator.  Even  the  raging  rest- 
less sea  is  His,  for  He  made  it.  And  His  hands  formed  the  dry 
land.    (5.) 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  43 

"Come,  let  us  worship  and  bow  down, 

Let  us  kneel  before  Jehovah  our  Maker ! ' ' 

< 

The  Fourth  Book  of  the  Psalms  (90-106)  is  particularly  rich 
in  exalted  songs  celebrating  Jehovah's  praise  in  History  and  in 
Creation. 

In  94 :8f  fools  are  asked  if  He  who  formed  the  people  must  not 
'be  able  to  punish  the  enemies  of  God  and  their  enemies ;  if  He  who 
devised  the  ear  must  not  hear ;  and  if  He  who  formed  the  eye  must 
not  see?  In  several  passages  occurs  the  phrase,  "Jehovah  has  as- 
sumed the  sovereignty." 

In  93 :1  the  consequence  stated  is,  that  the  world  would  stand 
firm  and  unshaken. 

In  96 :10  this  text  is  to  be  proclaimed  among  the  heathen,  and 
it  should  cause  heaven  and  sea  and  field  and  tree  to  utter  a  shout 
of  joy. 

In  97:1  the  text  is  repeated;  and  the  earth  and  the  multitude 
of  countries  are  called  on  to  rejoice.  In  99  :1  the  Sovereignty  makes 
the  people  tremble  and  the  earth  quake.  This  Psalm  has  a  refrain 
beginning,  ' '  Exalt  Jehovah  our  God. "     (1:9.) 

The  "whole  earth"  is  called  on  to  exalt  Jehovah  with  loud 
acclamation  or  rejoicing.    (98:4  and  100:1.) 

The  idea  of  creation  is  generally  coupled  with  joy  and  feelings 
of  confidence.  It  is  used  as  a  stimulus  for  faith.  But  in  Psalm  90 
the  thought  of  God,  who  was  before  the  birth  of  the  mountains  and 
the  bringing  forth  of  the  earth  and  the  world,  is  set  over  against 
man  in  his  transitoriness — man  is  of  few  days  and  full  of  trouble. 
This  Psalm  is  impressive  and  intended  to  bring  man  to  repent- 
ance— that  he  may  number  his  days  and  "enter  the  gateway  of 
wisdom."     (12.) 

Psalm  102  also  is  full  of  minor  chords.  The  Psalmist  is  "dis- 
tressed" (2),  his  bones  glow  like  a  brand  (3),  his  heart  is  withered 
like  grass  (4),  he  has  been  raised  up,  then  hurled  down  (10),  while 
Jehovah  is  enthroned  forever  (12),  he  prays  that  he  may  not  be 
cut  oif  in  the  midst  of  his  days.  (v.  24.)  It  is  plaintive  when  he 
adds,  ' '  Thy  years  endure  through  all  generations ;  Of  old  hast  thou 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth.  The  heavens  are  the  work  of  thy 
hands.  They  vanish,  but  Thou  endurest;  they  all  fade  away  like  a 
garment;  Like  a  vesture  thou  changest  them,  and  they  change. 
But  thou  remaineth  the  same;  Thy  years  have  no  end."  (24b-27.) 


44  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

Psalm  103  celebrates  God's  providence  over  man.  The  same 
figure  of  the  withering  grass  appears  again  (15, 16),  but  the  Psalm- 
ist's joy  is  unlbroken,  as  he  remembers  that  "the  goodness  of 
Jehovah  is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  over  those  who  fear 
Him.  (17.)  Jehovah's  throne  is  in  heaven,  but  His  dominion  is 
over  the  universe.    (19.)    The  Psalmist  speaks  for  the  community. 

The  relation  between  Providence  and  Creation  is  somewhat 
evident  in  the  fact  that  the  great  hymn  of  Providence,  Psalm  103, 
is  followed  by  the  most  famous  of  all  the  Creation  Psalms,  the 
104th.  Delitzsch  calls  this  Psalm  *  *  A  hymn  of  praise  of  the  God  of 
the  Seven  Days." 

But  the  poet  does  not  follow  the  scheme  of  days  rigidly.  The 
passage  from  the  first  day  to  the  second  within  the  first  strophe  is 
iclear;  the  third  day  has  a  great  many  additional  features  trans- 
posed into  it,  but  the  transition  to  the  fourth  (19)  is  evident.  In 
the  exigencies  of  the  poem,  man  is  out  of  place,  both  he  and  the 
animals  already  appear  in  fourth  day.  (20,  21,  23.)  But  the  sea 
animals  appear  in  their  right  place.  The  poem  is  very  bold,  ma- 
terials being  used  which  were  too  popular  and  anthropomorphic  for 
the  author  of  Gen.  1. 

The  poem  is  a  hymn  of  praise  to  Jehovah.  Jehovah  is  directly 
addressed.  (The  third  person  is  used  in  Psalm  103.)  The  purpose 
of  the  Psalmist  is  to  bring  his  own  soul  and  that  of  others  up  to 
nobler  thoughts  of  God  as  He  is  revealed  in  the  world  of  nature 
which  He  has  created,  and  which  He  governs  with  such  tenderness 
and  strength.    (27-30.) 

The  Psalter  closes  with  five  Hallelujah  hymns.  Scarcely  from 
one  of  them  is  the  creation  idea  absent,  and  what  their  highest  aim 
is,  appears  most  clearly  from  Psalm  150,  in  whose  six  verses  there 
are  thirteen  exhortations  to  praise  God.  The  Psalter  is  an  expres- 
sion of  religious  souls.  This  expression  clothed  itself  in  many 
forms.  Some  of  those  forms  have  become  archaic  for  us,  but  in 
them  lives  the  spirit  of  eternal  youth.  The  Psalter  is  the  meeting 
place  of  God  and  the  soul.  This  meeting  is  the  essence  of  all  re- 
ligion. "True  religion  is  a  conviction  of  the  character  of  God,  and 
the  resting  upon  that  alone  for  salvation."  (G.  A.  Smith,  Isaiah, 
Vol.  II.,  p.  102.) 


IV. 

THE  VALUE  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION  FOR  CHRIS- 
TIAN FAITH.* 

We  have  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  creation  does  not  rise  in  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  affirmation  of  creation  out  of  nothing,  how- 
ever near  it  may  graze  this  conception.  We  have  seen  that  later 
Jewish  literature  shows  conflict  of  opinion  on  this  subject,  and  that 
the  tradition  within  the  Christian  church  has  not  been  without 
variety  in  its  forms.  But  the  fact  is  clear  that  in  Exilic  and  post- 
Exilic  times  a  very  high  form  of  the  doctrine  becomes  fundamental 
in  Jewish  thought;  that  creation  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental 
tenets  of  the  Modem  Jewish  Church;  that  creation  out  of  noth- 
ing is  an  infallible  dogma  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church ;  and  that 
the  same  doctrine  is  taught  w^ith  equal  emphasis  in  Protestantism. 
In  view  of  all  this  we  see  the  importance  of  the  doctrine  for  faith. 
Absolute  creation  is  the  climax  to  which  faith  naturally  reaches.  If 
it  be  claimed  that  there  still  remains  a  chaos,  in  the  story  recorded 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  (1:2),  yet  this  chaos  is  under  the 
power  of  the  hovering  Spirit  of  God,  which  gives  it  life  and  real 
being,  and  it  is  obedient  to  the  almighty  word.  The  story  knows 
nothing  and  can  recognize  nothing,  as  standing  over  against  God 
in  successful  opposition  to  Him. 

The  Gnostics  are  witnesses  of  the  injury  to  faith  coming  from 
cosmological  speculation.  Under  the  stress  of  the  evil  and  imper- 
fection of  the  world  they  set  up  a  demiurge  in  their  thought.  They 
were  soon  lost  in  the  mazes  of  mythology.  The  Church  doctrine 
was  a  triumph  of  a  larger  and  more  robust  faith,  which  saw  "God 
within  the  shadow  keeping  watch  above  His  own ; "  a  faith  that 
transcended  the  apparent  dualism,  and  made  the  night  side  of 
nature  minister  to  the  light.  It  is  to  be  repeated  that  it  was  faith, 
and  not  rational  explanation  that  gave  the  Church  the  victory  over 
the  Gnostics.  The  Church  doctrine  received  its  sharp  definition 
in  the  warfare  with  the  vain  speculations  of  the  Gnostics.  It  is 
then  the  especial  aim  of  the  doctrine  to  shut  out  emanationism  and 
hylozoism.  Such  cosmological  speculation  to  account  for  the  origin 
of  the  w^orld  is  not  only  an  offense  to  the  idea  of  creation,  but  to 
the  Christian  idea  of  God.    The  Church  doctrine  exalts  God  to  the 


♦After  Kartan's  Dogmatik,  pp.  226-263. 


46  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

place  of  Holy  Love,  and  at)soliite  Lordship.  The  origin  of  the 
world,  then,  is  not  given  to  us  as  science  {gnosis),  as  an  occurrence , 
in  the  natural  world,  but  it  is  given  to  faith  as  the  work  of  a  per- 
sonal spirit,  as  an  act  in  our  moral  world.  It  is  the  supremacy  of 
the  Spirit.  Science  is  left  free  within  the  realm  of  natural  occur- 
rences of  the  world,  but  it  must  not  attempt  to  enter  inaccessible 
regions.  In  the  individual  the  certainty  of  redemption  through 
Jesus  Christ  reveals  to  him  a  new  world.  Before,  he  had  lived  in 
a  world  that  beat  upon  him  from  every  side,  while  its  ministers  of 
evil  led  him  beaten  and  bedraggled  into  many  pitfalls.  But  now, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  he  has  heard  his  calling,  and  through  Him  he 
has  received  overcoming  power,  power  to  do  duty  at  all  cost.  He 
has  become  convinced  of  an  eternal  purpose  for  him,  and  he  is  per- 
suaded that  neither  life  nor  death,  nor  things  present,  nor  things 
to  come,  can  separate  him  from  his  imperative,  though  also  joyful, 
vocation  of  duty.  That  is,  through  Christ  he  has  learned  to  over- 
come the  world,  as  Christ  overcame  the  world.  God,  then,  whose 
spirit  has  come  to  man  as  an  overcoming  spirit  must  dominate  the 
Universe,  as  man  dominates  his  moral  world.  This,  carried  back, 
ultimately  yields  the  doctrine  of  creation. 

Since  the  Reformation,  moral  duties  have  attained  religious 
significance.  The  service  of  God  is  found  in  doing  the  moral  task 
in  the  world.  Now,  faith  in  Providence  becomes  an  indispensable 
condition  for  this  task.  One  must  be  inwardly  certain  of  a  Provi- 
dence including  every  step  and  every  detail  of  life.  Such  certainty 
does  not  come  through  insight  and  can  not  be  found  through 
rational  calculation.  It  is  a  matter  of  faith.  This  certainty  can 
only  come  to  the  man  who  has  laid  hold  on  God  by  faith;  it 
reaches  its  highest  in  him  who  finds  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ.  The 
certainty  is  not  theoretical,  but  practical.  It  comes  not  by  induc- 
tion or  deduction,  it  is  the  knowledge  that  comes  by  faith,  and 
manifests  itself  as  moral  and  religious  certainty,  which  nothing  can 
gainsay,  and  which  brings  the  joy  of  the  Lord,  and  strength  and 
victory.  As  the  Augsburg  Confession  says,  faith  in  Providence  is 
"a  fruit  of  justifying  saving  faith."  But  Providence  has  for  its 
presupposition,  ultimately,  the  thought  of  Creation.  The  necessity 
for  faith  in  Providence  means  that  faith  can  only  live  in  a  world, 
which,  in  total  and  minutest  part,  is  under  the  control  of  God. 
The  Christian  can  not  perform  his  task  in  a  broken  and  divided 
world.    The  ebb  and  flow  of  the  world's  forces,  the  storm  and  stress 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  47 

of  living,  must  not  prevent  him  from  coming  through  a  still 
unitary  world  to  the  feet  of  God,  in  full  assurance  that  He  rules 
the  world  not  only  with  absolute  might,  but  also  with  perfect  love. 
If  rational  knowledge  is  denied  him,  faith  in  an  eternal  purpose 
for  moral  life  yields  him  a  knowledge  that  is  ready,  also,  to  give 
a  reason  for  itself,  so  that  the  knowledge  of  faith  comes  in  the  end  to 
satisfy  reason.  The  Christian  view  of  the  world  then  rests  upon 
the  Christian  knowledge  of  God.  It  involves  the  thought  of  abso- 
lute sovereignty  of  God  over  the  world  and  the  absolute  de- 
pendence of  the  world  on  God ;  also,  that  God,  in  His  omnipotence, 
freely  acts  in  accordance  with  His  holy  love,  which  means  that 
everything  in  the  world  serves  the  purposes  of  His  holy  love.  On 
the  side  of  God  the  two  words  are :  Sovereignty  and  love.  On  the 
side  of  the  world,  the  two  words  are:  Dependence  and  teleology. 
This  thought  can  only  reach  its  goal  when  it  becomes  the  thought 
that  God  for  an  eternal  purpose  of  love  created  the  world.  This 
faith  finds  its  growing  guarantee  of  validity  in  that  it  functions 
day  by  day  in  experience,  in  creating  the  moral  world  of  finite  pur- 
pose and  victory.  ' '  The  mighty  hopes  that  make  us  men ' '  are  part 
of  reality,  and  the  whole  must  not  be  inferior  to  the  part. 

The  actual  world  in  which  the  Christian  must  live  and  conquer 
is  often  full  of  difficulty  and  embarrassment,  leading  to  most  pain- 
ful doubt.  It  is  only  on  condition  that  all  things,  even  the  doubts, 
are  dependent  on  the  will  of  God,  that  he  can  press  toward  his 
moral  goal  with  confidence.  It  is  with  such  a  view  tliat  the  Books 
of  Job  and  Eeclesiastes,  which,  at  first  sight,  seem  too  irreligious 
to  find  a  place  in  the  sacred  canon,  come  to  have  their  true  value. 
They  serve  to  teach  us  that  doubt  itself  is  used  by  Gt)d  for  reveal- 
ing new  truth.  Job,  in  the  end,  is  triumphant.  Eeclesiastes,  by  the 
very  pessimism  of  one  part  of  it,  drives  home  its  higher  truth,  that, 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  the  soul  must  rest  in  God, 
jQOt  in  things;  it  must  fuid  God  over  all  and  in  all.  If  it  were 
necessary  to  believe  that  anything  in  the  universe  existed  inde- 
pendent of  God  which  might  do  battle  with  Him  with  possibility 
of  defeating  His  purpose  of  holy  love,  then  confidence  in  God  and 
joy  of  salvation  must  suffer  injury.  This  faith,  pressed  back  to  its 
roots,  knows  that  every  atom  in  the  universe  depends  for  its  living, 
moving,  and  being,  upon  God.  This  is  the  essential  meaning  of  the 
deliverance  of  faith  that  God  creates  the  world  out  of  nothing.  It 
is  true  that  the  knowledge  we  come  to  is  not  objective  knowledge 
of  the  understanding.    But  the  understanding  is  not  the  measure 


48  TEE  IDEA  OF  CREATION. 

of  truth  and  reality.  The  feeling  and  willing  side  of  man  must 
he  supplied  before  man  becomes  the  measure  of  all  things  which 
God  reveals. 

Neither  science  nor  philosophy  can  help  us  any  further  along. 
Neither  science  nor  philosophy  can  give  us  reality.  They  can  only 
give  such  as  they  have.  Philosophy  attempts  to  give  us  a  statement 
of  reality,  and  science  attempts  to  give  us  control  of  reality.  The 
world  which  science  describes  to  us,  the  world  of  atoms  moving  in 
oflbedience  to  resident  laws,  is  an  artificial  world  constructed  to  aid 
in  getting  control  of  the  real  world  of  experience.  This  artificial 
construction  is  only  a  working  hypothesis  for  control. 

This  scientific  construction  can  furnish  us  no  bearers  of  reality 
that  will  stand  the  strain.  At  the  end  of  our  search  we  come  to 
atoms,  but  they  fail  us  as  final  reality  and  prove  to  be  only  aids  to 
reflection.  We  must  turn  our  eyes  from  them  and  find  our  reality 
in  the  world  of  every  day  experience. 

It  follows,  then,  that  natural  laws  which  tie  themselves  to 
atoms  and  aid  us  in  giving  a  statement  of  reality,  can  not  come 
between  God  and  the  world.  The  natural  laws  may  be  useful  for 
man's  control,  but  they  are  nothing  real  between  God  and  His 
world. 

Hence,  we  see  that  natural  science  can  speak  no  word  on  our 
subject.  It  knows  of  no  absolute  beginning.  And  science  can  reach 
no  absolute  knowledge.  It,  also,  must  end  in  faith,  faith  in  a  mean- 
ing to  the  world  disclosed  to  our  consciousness.  In  like  manner, 
Christian  knowledge  is  also  faith  in  a  meaning  to  the  world,  based 
upon  the  highest  thoughts  revealed  to  us  in  our  inner  conscious- 
ness, giving  us  an  assurance  that  is  not  ashamed  (Rom.  1 :16)  and 
that  is  ready  to  give  a  reason  for  itself.     (1  Pet.  3:15.) 

If  it  be  said  that  the  doctrine  of  creation  ex  nihilo  yields  us 
an  unthinkable  concept,  effort  has  been  made  to  show  that  we  have 
at  least  a  human  statement  of  divine  truth,  indispensable  to 
Christianity,  that  God  is  God  of  every  atom  in  all  the  universe  and 
without  Him  and  independent  of  Him  there  is  neither  force,  nor 
motion,  nor  life ;  that  * '  all  things  were  made  by  Him  *  *  *  and 
in  Him  was  life."     (John  1:3.) 

*  *  By  faith  we  understand  that  the  worlds  have  been  formed  by 
the  word  of  God,  so  that  what  is  seen  hath  not  been  made  out  of 
things  that  do  appear."    (Heb.  11 :3.) 

Creation  and  redemption  meet  in  Jesus  Christ  in  many  pass- 
ages in  the  New  Testament:  1st  Cor.  8 :6,  Col.  1 :15-17 ;  John  1 :3,  10 


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ENCYCLOPEDIAS. 

Hastings,  James,  et  al. — Dictionary  of  the  Bible.     5  Vols.     New  York, 

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